Dhoni turned things in Jharkhand's favour when he came to bat before Pragyan Ojha rattled the Jharkhand middle order
Despite captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's explosive knock of 70 leading the way for Jharkhand in the second semi-final tie of the 2016-17 Vijay Hazare Trophy, Bengal snatched a win to book their berth in the final of the competition at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi on Saturday.
Winning the toss and electing to field, Jharkhand's move backfired when the Bengal's top three of Sreevats Goswami, AR Eswaran and Manoj Tiwary propelled Bengal to a commandable position.
The opening pair of Goswami and Eswaran reached triple figures while Bengali skipper Tiwary played a supporting knock of 75 along with some minor contribution from batsmen below to post a exceptional score of 329/4 in 50 overs. Tiwary's 49-ball innings had seven fours and two sixes after Easwaran and Shreevats scored identical 101 each, adding 198 runs together for the opening wicket.
While Easwaran anchored the innings with seven boundaries and a hooked six in 117 balls, Goswami had 11 fours and a six in 99 deliveries.
Goswami was more flamboyant while Easwaran was compact, which even drew applause from chairman of selectors MSK Prasad. Varun Aaron was the pick of the bowlers with only two wickets despite leaking a costly 89 runs in ten overs. In reply to Bengal's innings, Jharkhand failed to withstand the storm, as their batsmen failed to stick at the crease.
The tale of the game only changed when M.S Dhoni and Ishank Jaggi build on a supportive partnership to get Jharkhand back into the game. Sticking with Ishank Jaggi, Jharkhand captain Dhoni struck a 97 run partnership following the departure of Manoj Tiwari. Dhoni took the battle back to the enemy camp, hitting 70 off 62 balls, before they were bundled out for 288 in 50 overs.
The four sixes were vintage Dhoni and the 2000-odd spectators who had come to watch him in action were not disappointed. They were ecstatic when Ashoke Dinda dropped a sitter at long-off that trickled down to the boundary. The hapless off-spinner Amir Gani watched in disbelief as Dhoni then hit him for two sixes over long-on -- the second one went 100 metres.
The pressure of scoreboard was telling but that didn't deter Dhoni from sending a Pragyan Ojha delivery into the second tier at the Ambedkar Stadium end. He found an able ally in Ishank Jaggi (59 off 43 balls) who also played his shots at will, even as Bengal's ground fielding was exceptional led by centurion Easwaran. Ojha (5/71) has lost some zip after a remodelled action and kept on bowling short and was repeatedly punished by Dhoni and Jaggi.
And after left arm spinner Pragyan Ojha bowled Dhoni, Jharkhand lost control of their way. Jaggi was leg before in the next over from Sayan Ghosh and then the match was over with Ojha wrapping up the tail. Jaggi's explosive innings of 59 off 43 deliveries, also failed to save Jharkhand as Ojha rattled the lower order to pick a five wicket haul for 71 runs.
Having won the semi-final by 41 runs, Bengal will now face Tamil Nadu who already booked a semi-final spot by beating Baroda on Thursday.
With agency inputs
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 "Dhoni's blitzkreig in vain as Jharkhand dumped out of Vijay Hazare Trophy semis against Bengal")
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