File photo of Yuzvendra Chahal
Pulkit Narang played an all-rounder to avoid some worrying moments to thrash Goa by one wicket in a low-scoring Group E match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy national ODI here on Saturday.
Chasing a target of 155, Services lost their half within 15 overs and kept on losing wickets, but a steely Narang scored an unbeaten 67 to put his team at number 8 to drive home.
Services off-spinner Narang, who played a scintillating 2/35 in his seven overs earlier in the day, held on to his end in his 93-ball knock with three sixes and seven fours.
Goa’s medium pacer Felix Alemao scored a career-best 4/34 and nearly sealed the issue for him after he trapped service number 10 Raj Bahadur for five in 32.5 overs.
Services were still in need of a mammoth 58 runs with Narang in the company of last man Trivendra Kumar as the duo did well to seal their third successive win.
With the last pair in company, Narang deftly swung the strike while Trivendra also showed stoic resistance, coming off 12 balls for his unbeaten 1 run.
Earlier opting to field at the JSCA International Stadium here, Services bowled Goa out for 154 in 40.1 overs, with left-arm pacer Raj making a stunning comeback of 3/42 in 7.1 overs.
Divesh Pathania, Rahul Singh and Narang took two wickets each.
Rajasthan also retained their winning run, thrashing Railways by six wickets to score three runs in a row and remain ahead of services on net run-rate.
Shubham Sharma (3/39) and Aniket Chaudhary (3/49) took three wickets each, while the left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed Bowled a third 1/36 of his 10 overs to restrict Railways to below-par 233/9.
In reply, Rajasthan raced home in 45.1 overs on an unbeaten 109-run stand between Mahipal Lomror (85 not out) and Samarpit Joshi (53 not out).
short score
Goa 154; 40.1 overs (Raj Bahadur 3/42, Rahul Singh 2/13, Divesh Pathania 2/19, Pulkit Narang 2/35) lost to serve 155/9; 44 overs (Pulkit Narang 67 not out; Felix Alemao 4/34, Lakshya Garg 3/29) by one wicket.
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