CHENNAI: Riding on Man of the Match P Vidyuth's 7 for 73, TNCA President's XI bagged a lead of 337 runs over Jammu & Kashmir. The visitors conceded the match on the final day of the semifinals of the All India Buchi Babu Invitation Tournament played at the CSK-HPC grounds here on Wednesday. TNCA President's XI will face defending champions Hyderabad in the final starting on Saturday.
Resuming at the overnight total of 212, J&K were all out for 230. The J&K middle-order caved in to the guile of Vidyuth, who looked unplayable on Wednesday morning.
Tamil Nadu Ranji chief coach and TNCA President's XI coach M Senthilnathan attributed teamwork as the reason for his team's win over J&K. ''It was a brilliant performance by our boys. Vidyuth bowled brilliantly. He was literally unplayable. One expected the game to go for more than the first session on the final day, but Vidyuth with his penetrative bowling picked up wickets at the drop of a hat,'' complimented Senthilnathan.
Vidyuth was delighted with his match-winning performance. ''Very happy and glad to contribute to the team's cause. Felt very good. It's been a long wait for this (match winning performance),'' said Vidyuth after the game.
The hosts spinners plan was to bowl in tandem as the surface was helping the tweakers. They decided not to try anything big and go with the flow. ''Actually the wicket started to play to the tune of the spinners in the morning. So we bowled really well in partnerships. That was the plan,'' revealed Vidyuth.
''Then myself, Vignesh P and Hemchudeshan J, bowled really well and tight to put the Jammu and Kashmir team in a spot of bother. Since we were accurate, the runs were hard to come for them and they started making mistakes,'' added the genial spinner.
Vidyuth showed courage by flighting the ball to tease the batters into submission. ''Yeah, my plan was to actually flight the ball a little more because the wicket was starting to become a bit slow. So giving the flight to the ball was proving to be more beneficial to me. At the other end Hemchudeshan bowled tight. So we complimented each other,'' insisted Vidyuth.
Vidyuth revealed that It was a challenge to bowl to Yawar Hassan and Abdul Samad. ''Actually, Abdul Samad batted really well. And then the other batter Yawar too was good. Yawar used the crease really well. He played well both on the backfoot and as well as the front foot. Samad also took us on trying to put us off the lengths that we were bowling. So it was a challenge bowling to them and a good learning experience,'' said Vidyuth, saying that the TNCA First Division leagues matches served as good preparation for the tournament.
Brief scores: At CSK HPC: TNCA President's XI 567/9 decl. bt Jammu & Kashmir 230 in 74 ovs (Yawar Hassan 84, Musaif Aijaz 36, Abdul Samad 75, P Vidyuth 7/73, J Hemchudeshan 2/78). (After playing the first innings, J&K had conceded the match). At Guru Nanak: Hyderabad 225 and 254 bt Haryana 208 & 181 in 62.4 ovs (Lakshya Dalal 36, Himanshu Rana 46, Dheeru Singh 35, Nitin Sai Yadav 7/44).