Tamil Nadu made heavy weather of a paltry chase of 134 and just about managed to gather its wits and post a one-wicket win over Rajasthan in an Elite Group C match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Sunday.
The home team elected to field and the match was set-up for it by left-arm spinner R. Sai Kishore’s five-wicket haul, with the other spinner C.V. Varun chipping in with three wickets.
In reply, TN got off to a disastrous start losing three quick wickets with left-arm pacer Tanvir Mashart-ul-Haq accounting for Abhinav Mukund and N. Jagadeesan while skipper B. Indrajith was run out off the first ball.
Soon, TN was in deeper trouble at 49 for five with M. Kaushik Gandhi getting run out needlessly and B. Aparajith caught at the wicket.
It was then left to B. Anirudh Sitaram to save the day as the left-hander played a sensible innings (40, 51b, 3x4), holding fort at one end.
More quick wickets
Anirudh and Shahrukh Khan had a 40-run partnership for the sixth wicket before Rajasthan came back once again with three quick wickets to have the hosts reeling at 93 for eight.
The match seemed beyond TN when Anirudh was dismissed with the score reading 113 for nine before Mohammed (22 n.o.) and T. Natarajan took control and saw through the chase.
Earlier, after a tight efforts from pacers M. Mohammed and Natarajan that saw the visitors scoring just 15 runs for one wicket when spin was introduced in the ninth over. This triggered a collapse.
Varun picked two quick wickets, first Robin Bist was bowled when he stepped down and missed the ball and then Chetan Bist trapped leg before to reduce Rajasthan to 24 for four. At the other end, R. Sai Kishore had earlier accounted for Ankit Lamba.
From the ninth to 26th over, it was spin from both ends and six wickets fell for 73 runs during this period. Sai Kishore had Mahipal Lomror caught at slip, Ashok Menaria leg before and Chandrapal Singh caught at silly point as Rajasthan was reduced to 66 for seven in the 22nd over.
It was then Tajinder Singh Dhillon, walking in at seven, counter-attacked with a half-century.
Tajinder put on 58 runs with Abhimanyu Lamba to help Rajasthan go past 100.
He was eventually dismissed by Varun caught behind trying to cut the spinner and Sai Kishore got his fifth wicket dismissing Lamba.
The scores:
Team Rajasthan 133 in 37.1 overs (Tajinder Dhillon 55, R. Sai Kishore five for 39, C.V. Varun three for 28) lost to Tamil Nadu 134 for nine in 34.5 overs (B. Anirudh Sitaram 40, Rahul Chahar three for 35). Points: Tamil Nadu 4, Team Rajasthan 0.
Bengal 272 for nine in 50 overs (Manoj Tiwary 67, Sudip Chatterjee 44, Anustup Majumdar 49, Prayas Ray Barman 25 n.o., Rajat Deyfour for 48) bt Tripura 263 for four in 50 overs (Smit Patel 135 n.o., Nirupam Sen Choudhury 53, Bravish Shetty 37). Points: Bengal 4, Tripura 0.
J&K 108 in 34.3 overs (Paras Sharma 25, Amit Mishra three for 26) lost to Haryana 112 for seven in 36.1 overs (Pramod Chandila 29, Jayant Yadav 28 n.o., Auqib Nabi three for 32). Points: Haryana 4, J&K 0.
At Bengaluru (Group A): Mumbai 400 for five in 50 overs (Shreyas Iyer 144, Prithvi Shaw 129, Suryakumar Yadav 67, Siddhesh Lad 30 n.o., Anureet Singh three for 73) bt Railways 227 in 42.4 overs (Saurabh Wakaskar 48, Prashant Awasthi 41, Mrunal Devdhar 36, Ankit Yadav 35 n.o., Shams Mulani three for 26).
Maharashtra 281 for five in 50 overs (Ankeet Bawane 100 n.o., Naushad Shaikh 60, Ashay Palkar 46 n.o., Rahul Tripathi 38) bt Punjab 187 in 40.3 overs (Shubman Gill 36, Manan Vohra 27, Mandeep Singh 26, Satyajeet Bachhav five for 54).
Goa 148 in 45 overs (Darshan Misal 30, Amit Verma 29, Ayush Jamwal four for 25) lost to Himachal Pradesh 152 for six in 32.1 overs (Prashant Chopra 65, Priyanshu Khanduri 47 n.o., Amulya Pandrekar three for 44).
At New Delhi (Group B): Chhattisgarh 138 in 39.5 overs (A. Khare 36 n.o., Jalaj Saxena four for 31, Akshay Chandran three for 13) lost to Kerala 133 for four in 40 overs (Jalaj Saxena 58 n.o., Daryl Ferrario 33). Kerala won by six wickets via VJD method
Uttar Pradesh 95 for two in 15 overs (Upendra Yadav 42, Shivam Chaudhary 31) vs Odisha. Match abandoned.
Hyderabad 196 for nine in 45 overs (B. Sandeep76, K. Sumanth 47, Jaydev Unadkat four for 33) lost to Saurashtra 110 for three in 18.5 overs (Robin Uthappa 35). Saurashtra won by seven wickets via VJD method.
At Chennai (Group C): Team Rajasthan 133 in 37.1 overs (Tajinder Dhillon 55, R. Sai Kishore five for 39, C.V. Varun three for 28) lost to Tamil Nadu 134 for nine in 34.5 overs (B. Anirudh Sitaram 40, Rahul Chahar three for 35).
Bengal 272 for nine in 50 overs (Manoj Tiwary 67, Sudip Chatterjee 44, Anustup Majumdar 49, Prayas Ray Barman 25 n.o., Rajat Dey four for 48) bt Tripura 263 for four in 50 overs (Smit Patel 135 n.o., Nirupam Sen Choudhury 53, Bravish Shetty 37).
J&K 108 in 34.3 overs (Paras Sharma 25, Amit Mishra three for 26) lost to Haryana 112 for seven in 36.1 overs (Pramod Chandila 29, Jayant Yadav 28 n.o., Auqib Nabi three for 32).
Plate: At Vadodara: Sikkim 121 in 49 overs (Ashish Thapa 46) lost to Nagaland 122 for three in 26.2 overs (K.B. Pawan 83 n.o.); Arunachal Pradesh-Manipur and Puducherry-Mizoran matches abandoned.
