CHENNAI: Gurjapneet Singh's 4/32 and half centuries by N Jagadeesan (67) and Pradosh Ranjan Paul (73) paved the way for Tamil Nadu to beat Pondicherry by 101 runs in the Vijay Hazare tournament played at Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
For a side that was struggling to put across a competitive XI in both Ranji and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, TN breathed a sigh of relief getting off to a good start in the 50-over format. Gurjapneet, Sachin Rathi and Sunny Sandhu made their debut for Tamil Nadu on Wednesday. However, Gurjapneet has played two List 'A' matches earlier in Jan 2025 for India 'A'.
"I am happy to start the VHT on a winning note. We worked on getting the combination right and I am glad we got the right guys at the right position and thus we could post a challenging total of 300 plus. When you have runs on the board, automatically things fall in place," said M Venkataramana, head coach of Tamil Nadu. "With a couple of guys making their debut and a young side in general, it was a creditable show," he added.
Put into bat, Tamil Nadu got off to an excellent start with B Sai Sudharsan (48) and Jagadeesan going hammer and tongs against the Pondicherry attack. The duo raised 83 runs for the first wicket in 14.1 overs that set the tone for the middle order to exploit. "It was imperative that we get a good start. At Ahmedabad, early in the morning the moisture does help the bowlers in the first hour or so as it (game) is an early start. Both Sai Sudharsan and Jags played out the initial overs with caution and also kept the score board moving. The left-right combination worked for us and set up a good platform for the middle order to exploit," insisted Venkataramana.
Pradosh, who is known to be a grafter, changed gears effortlessly and made 73 off just 79 balls. This was his maiden 50-plus score, his previous best being 31. "Pradosh is technically a sound batter who can accelerate at will. Right from the Buchi Babu he has been among runs. I Just told him to play his natural game and not think too much about the format and change his style of play. Pradosh played to the merit of the ball and had a good partnership with Jagadeesan. These partnerships helped us go past the 300-run mark," pointed out the former India off spinner.
Chasing 311 for a win, Pondicherry started in earnest with N Shyam (60) and V Bharadwaj posting 67 for the first wicket. Once Bhardwaj fell to the pace of Sonu Yadav, wickets started to fall at regular intervals. Gurjapneet, fresh from his India A, stint gave breakthroughs at regular intervals to earn the player of the match award on debut.