Defending a small total, the Tamil Nadu bowlers came good one last time and when it mattered.
The reward for their resilience, that led to a 37-run victory over Bengal, was the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Tamil Nadu became a five-time winner and spoilt Bengal’s bid for the third time in the title-clash.
Chasing Tamil Nadu’s none-too-intimidating 217, Bengal started too cautiously, lost two wickets in the fifth over, and was always behind the asking rate.
The pressure of the high stakes in the final came to the fore for Bengal when Tamil Nadu medium-pacer Aswin Crist ran out an in-form Abhimanyu Easwaran and bowled Agniv Pan to reduce Bengal to four for two in the fifth over.
Facing a disciplined bowling in keeping with the field, Bengal could never break free. Opener Shreevats Goswami was out to a diving catch by skipper Vijay Shankar before a well-set Manoj Tiwary lost his off-stump while attempting to pull.
Sudip Chatterjee and Anustup Majumdar also failed to break the shackles.
Chatterjee fell leg-before and soon after, half-centurion Majumdar lost his leg-stump in his desperate attempt to get the ball away. At this stage, Bengal was 143 for six in the 39th over and Tamil Nadu smelt victory.
With the asking-rate mounting, Bengal had no choice but to take some chances. Mohammed Shami, who returned to the final and took four wickets earlier in the day, and Pragyan Ojha hit a six each, but soon fell.
The medium-pacers returned and got the last two wickets to complete the formalities.
Washington Sundar was the most economical TN bowler with figures of 8-1-17-0. His tight spell added to the pressure that eventually led to the doom of Tiwary and Chatterjee.
A dejected Tiwary admitted Bengal did not execute its plans while chasing a small target. “No matter, what you say during several team meetings, on some days, you don’t get it right. I would have taken 217 any day but when we chased, we came under pressure.”
Karthik, whose 120 raised his tally to 607 runs in the competition this season, was understandably pleased after being named Man-of-the-Match.
“Credit to the boys for believing in themselves,” said Karthik who agreed that his experience of playing big matches helped the team’s cause today.
Asked about his freak hit-wicket that ended Tamil Nadu innings in the 48th over, Karthik broke into a smile and said, “I didn’t know how I disturbed the stumps. I was upset with myself because the ball earned us five byes and I got out like this.”
Electing to bat, Tamil Nadu lost four wickets — three to Dinda’s superlative spell — and again four at the end, including three to Shami. In the intervening period, it was Karthik’s experience that carried Tamil Nadu past 200.
Karthik was last out after swinging at a Shami delivery going wide down the leg-side and dislodged the bails with the bat on the follow-through.
The scores:
Tamil Nadu: Kaushik Gandhi b Dinda 15, Ganga Sridhar Raju c Goswami b Dinda 4, B. Aparajith lbw b Shami 5, Dinesh Karthik hit-wkt. b Shami 112, Vijay Shankar c Goswami b Dinda 2, B. Indrajith run out 32, Washington Sundar run out 22, Aswin Crist c Goswami b Seth 10, M. Mohammad c Chatterjee b Shami 3, R. Sai Kishore c Majumdar b Shami 0, Rahil Shah (not out) 1; Extras (lb-5, w-6): 11; Total (in 47.2 overs): 217.
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-26, 3-36, 4-49, 5-134, 6-172, 7-200, 8-212, 9-212.
Bengal bowling: Ashoke Dinda 9-0-36-3, Kanishk Seth 10-0-59-1, Mohammed Shami 8.2-1-26-4, Pragyan Ojha 10-0-49-0, Aamir Gani 10-0-42-0.
Bengal: Shreevats Goswami c Vijay Shankar b Rahil 23, Abhimanyu Easwaran run out 1, Agniv Pan b Crist 0, Manoj Tiwary b Vijay Shankar 32, Sudip Chatterjee b Sai Kishore 58, Anustup Majumdar lbw b Aparajith 24, Aamir Gani c Aparajith b Mohammad 24, Mohammed Shami st. Karthik b Rahil 8, Pragyan Ojha c Kaushik Gandhi b Mohammad 7, Ashoke Dinda b Crist 0, Kanishk Seth (not out) 2; Extras (lb-1): 1; Total (in 45.5 overs): 180.
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-4, 3-37, 4-68, 5-133, 6-143, 7-154, 8-170, 9-172.
Tamil Nadu bowling: Aswin Crist 7-1-23-2, M. Mohammad 7.5-1-30-2, Rahil Shah 7-1-38-2, Washington Sundar 8-1-17-0, Vijay Shankar 5-0-20-1, B. Aparajith 6-0-22-1, R. Sai Kishore 5-0-29-1.
Toss: Tamil Nadu.
