BENGALURU: Vishvaraj Jadeja's unbeaten helped Saurashtra beat Punjab by nine wickets and enter the Vijay Hazare Trophy final here on Friday. They will face Vidarbha in the summit clash on Sunday. After Saurashtra bowlers did an excellent job in limiting Punjab to a sub-par 291, Jadeja sent the bowlers to the washers in his 127-ball innings (18x4s, 3x6s). The powerful right-hander received was accompanied by his opening partner Harvik Desai (64), with whom he raised 172 runs in just 23 overs, and Prerak Mankad (52 not out) as Saurashtra chased down the target in just 39.3 overs. Jadeja and Mankad milked 121 runs for the unbroken second wicket partnership. Saurashtra started the chase on a fortuitous note, having received five penalty runs as Punjab batters ran on the restricted areas while batting in their innings. Saurashtra did not squander that sign of luck, following it up with a befitting batting effort. Jadeja and Desai combined to eke out 23 runs off pacer Krish Bhagat in the seventh over, and they seldom let the momentum taper off. Jadeja, who was dropped later at the team score of 120, brought up his fifty in 29 balls, and then settled into a calmer rhythm, taking a further 45 balls to reach his third List A hundred.
Desai fell in between, cutting pacer Gurnoor Brar to Naman Dhir at point but that was a minor aberration as Jadeja went past his maiden 150 in List A matches. Soon, the powerful batter brought the winning runs for Saurashtra through a boundary off Dhir.
Brief scores: Punjab 291 in 50 ovs (Anmolpreet 100, Prabhsimran 87; C Sakariya 4/60) lost to Saurashtra 293/1 in 39.3 ovs (V Jadeja 165 n.o, H Desai 64).