Raina leads from the front to take UP to an easy win against Rajasthan

Uttar Pradesh captain Suresh Raina lead from the front, scoring 70 off 48 balls and in the company of Prashant Gupta took UP to an easy win against Rajasthan. AP

Indore: Skipper Suresh Raina smashed an unbeaten 70 off 48 balls while Prashant Gupta made 87 as a dominant Uttar Pradesh crushed Rajasthan by eight wickets in their limited-overs Vijay Hazare Trophy (Central Zone) match here today.

While Raina hit four fours and as many sixes during his belligerent knock, Gupta hit 10 boundaries in the course of his knock at the Emerald High School Ground. Opting to field, Uttar Pradesh restricted Rajasthan to 198 for seven in 35 overs in a curtailed match, and then chased down the target with 21 balls to spare.

Not a single Rajasthan bowler was spared as Raina went into a rampage, carting them to all corners of the park. Gupta was the perfect foil as he gave Raina company, scoring his runs at a quick pace.
Robin Bist (60) and skipper Ashok Menaria (53) were the two significant scorers from the Rajasthan team.

198 was not a bad total at all considering the number of overs UP had to chase down the target, but Raina's swashbuckling knock changed the equation in a matter of few overs.

Brief Scores: Rajasthan - 198 for 7 wkts in 35 Overs ( Robin Bist 63, Ashok Menaria 53; Imtiaz Ahmed 3-51, Ankit Rajpoot 2-31) lost to Uttar Pradesh - 201 for 2 wkts in 31.3 Overs (Prashant Gupta 87, Suresh Raina 70; Raman Chahar 1-50, Manjeet Singh 1-55)