A splendid bowling performance by both the pacers and spinners along with Shubham Chaubey's unbeaten 85 helped Uttar Pradesh defeat Saurashtra by five wickets in their Group B match of the Vijay Hazare One-Day cricket tournament, here today.
Electing to bowl, Uttar Pradesh restricted Saurashtra to 189 off 48.5 overs and then chased down the target in 44.4 overs at the Madhavrao Scindia cricket ground.
Pravin Kumar and India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar took advantage of the early moisture and removed in-form Sheldon Jackson (2) and Avi Barot (1).
Bhuvaneshwar then sent Jaydev Shah (1) to the pavilion reducing Saurashtra to 7 for 3 inside the first five overs.
Indian Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara and Arpit Vasavada then added 75 runs for the fourth wicket. While Pujara scored 41 while Vasavada made 39. Kamlesh Makawana too chipped in 35.
Piyush Chawla grabbed three wickets for 53 runs, while chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav bagged two wickets.
UP got off to a miserable start with their opener Saurabh Kumar going back to the pavilion on a duck. However, Shubham Chaubey, made unbeaten 85 off 125 deliveries hitting six fours and two sixes and guided the team to victory.
Eklavya Dwivedi scored 39, while Suresh Raina, who was yesterday picked up by the Rajkot team for the Indian Premier League, fell cheaply on 18.
For Saurashtra, Dharmendra Jadeja bagged two wickets for 38 runs.
Brief Scores:
Saurashtra 189 all out off 48.5 overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 41, Arpit Vasavada 39; Piyush Chawla 3-53)
Uttar Pradesh 191 for 5 off 44.4 overs (Shubham Chubey 85 not out, Akashdeep Nath 28 not out; Dharmendra Jadeja 2-38)
Points: Uttar Pradesh 4, Saurashtra 0.
