Vijay Hazare Trophy: MS Dhoni dishes out a reply for critics, fashions Jharkhand's progress to semi-final

A certain Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise might think that MS Dhoni has passed his prime as a leader but the legendary cricketer fashioned Jharkhand's progress to the semi-final of Vijay Hazare Trophy on Wednesday. Chasing 160 for victory, Jharkhand beat Vidarbha by six wickets to make the next round.

Batting first after winning the toss at the Palam A stadium in Delhi, Vidarbha could only score 159 for nine in 50 overs. Monu Kumar picked up two wickets while Varun Aaron, Rahul Shukla, Kaushal Singh and Shahbaz Nadeem took one wicket apiece. Ganesh Satish scored 35 and got some late order support from Ravi Jangid who scored 62 runs while Rajneesh Gurbani assisted with 22 runs.

Jharkhand were provided a solid start by their openers Pratyush Singh (33) and Ishan Kishan (35) while Ishank Jaggi top scored with 41 runs. Dhoni (18 n o) came in at the fall of Saurabh Tiwary's (17) wicket and stitched an unbeaten partnership of 49 runs with Jaggi to take his team over the line.

The quintessential finisher did bring into the effect the long handle, slamming Ganesh Satish for a huge six in the 46th over to bring curtains down on the match. Dhoni's humility also came to the fore as he happily obliged a fan with an autograph even though he had trespassed into the centre with Jharkhand nearing the victory target.