Tamil Nadu crushed Vidarbha by 113 runs and stormed into the Super League of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy cricket tournament here on Sunday.
Tamil Nadu topped Group-B with 20 points with its fifth win of the tournament.
No contest
A close match appeared on the cards when Vidarbha restricted Tamil Nadu to a much lesser total than it threatened at the half-way stage of the innings.
However, it turned out to be a no- contest in the end as the Tamil Nadu bowlers bundled out the Ranji Trophy champion for a paltry 55.
Left-arm spinner R. Sai Kishore once again turned out to be Tamil Nadu’s hero with three wickets. Vijay Shankar made a significant contribution with his knock of 26 and three wickets.
Captain Dinesh Karthik (58) and B. Aparajith(33) added 83 runs for the third wicket after openers M. Vijay and Washington Sundar were dismissed cheaply.
The highlight of Tamil Nadu’s innings was Karthik’s excellent batting against Vidarbha’s spinners.
Karthik mauled off-spinner Akshay Wakhare as Tamil Nadu raced to 93 for two at the end of 10 overs.
However, Akshay Karnewar dismissed both Aparajith and Karthik in the 13th over to bring Vidarbha back into the match.
The TN innings lost its momentum and it needed a few big hits from Vijay Shankar and Shahrukh Khan to prop up the total.
Varying his pace
Sai Kishore varied his pace and lured the Vidarbha batsmen to their doom.
Jitesh Sharma’s aggressive intent off Sai Kishore’s third ball ended in the hands of Vijay Shankar at long-on.
The dismissal set the trend for the rest of the innings as the Vidarbha batsmen perished to poor shots. In his second spell Sai Kishore dismissed Karnewar to complete a resounding win for Tamil Nadu.
