JAIPUR: A fiery knock of 82 off 53 balls by Abhijeet Tomar saw Jodhpur cruise to the final of the Rajasthan Premier League (RPL) with a commanding seven wickets win in Qualifier 2 against Udaipur at SMS Stadium here on Friday.
The opener batted with admirable fluency as he took on both the spinners and seamers with equal ease and struck 13 4s and a six. In their chase of 163, Abhijeet collaborated with Bharat Sharma (55 off 42 balls), who came out to bat at No.4 instead of his usual position as an opener, to stitch a partnership of 120 runs.
Jodhpur will meet Jaipur in the final scheduled on Monday.
Earlier, after a poor start, middle-order brought Udaipur back on track to help the team post a fighting 163/6. It was Impact Player Shahbaz Khan's cameo of 10-ball 25 that made a difference to the team's total. He weaved a crucial partnership of 36 runs with Rahul Tomar (35 off 26 balls) to take Udaipur from 106/3 in 15 overs to 157/5 in 19.1 overs.
Having decided to bowl first, Jodhpur fast bowler Ravindra Khichar, who had a forgetful outing against Jaipur in Qualifier 1 where he recorded figures of 3-0-32-0, looked a different bowler in Qualifier 2. The 'mystery bowler' scalped three important wickets of opener Kartik Sharma (37 off 32 balls), Shahbaz and Rahul.
It was Kartik's dismissal in the 10th over when Udaipur looked like having lost the way. He stitched a partnership of 70 runs with Samarpit Joshi (36 off 32 balls), but the latter too left the crease after holing out at covers in the 13th over.
