The script played out as expected. While in Pune, Group ‘B’ went right down to the wire — till the penultimate over before Karnataka sneaked into the quarterfinals — the match here between Tamil Nadu and Haryana ended in a predictable draw.
At the start of the mandatory overs, the match was called off with both teams finishing with a point each.
The first session was the most eventful among the three. It was witness to a couple of half chances — a dropped effort by R. Aushik Srinivas at short third man and Rahul Dalal’s dismissal off a no-ball from V. Yomahesh at the stroke of lunch.
There were a couple of wickets too. The first to go was captain Nitin Saini with the score at 40.
He was unable to keep a flick along the ground and was caught at short mid-wicket by Arun Karthick off Yomahesh. Next was Rahul Dewan, caught at long-on by Vijay Shankar after he attempted to loft Baba Aparajith for a six.
The next one-and-a-half sessions produced 81 runs for the loss of Abhimanyu Khod, who was caught behind by Arun Karthick — deputising for Dinesh Karthik as he was unable to resume wicketkeeping duties after lunch due to an injury — after prodding at a delivery from Sunil Sam.
Before play ended, Rahul Dalal notched up an unbeaten half century.
Summing up the season, Tamil Nadu coach V.B. Chandrasekhar said, “It’s been a season of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’. Whenever we could have added points, we didn’t add.”
With this result, the home team — last year’s finalist — ended in seventh position with 14 points.
The scores :
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings : 571 for six decl.
Haryana — 1st innings : Nitin Saini c K.B. Arun Karthick b V. Yomahesh 12, Rahul Dewan c Vijay Shankar b B. Aparajith 43, Abhimanyu Khod c K.B. Arun Karthick b Sunil Sam 45, Rahul Dalal 56 (not out), Yatharth Tomar 21 (not out); Extras (lb-1, nb-2): 3; Total (for three wkts. in 86 overs): 180.
Fall of wickets : 1-40, 2-73, 3-115.
Tamil Nadu bowling : Sunil Sam 17-5-44-1, Rahil S. Shah 23-9-36-0, R. Aushik Srinivas 17-6-45-0, V. Yomahesh 11-2-25-1, Vijay Shankar 5-3-9-0, B. Aparajith 12-5-18-1, Abhinav Mukund 1-0-2-0.
TN 1, Haryana 1 .
