CHENNAI: It was a case of so near yet so far as Tamil Nadu lost to Madhya Pradesh (MP) by two wickets in the second round of the Vijay Hazare tournament played in Ahmedabad on Friday. Chasing a target of 281, MP were at one point 271 for eight with Gurjapneet Singh and Sonu Yadav bowling aggressively, but Tripuresh Singh (19 n.o) and Aryan Pandey (8 n.o.) with their stubborn effort guided their side to victory in thrilling fashion.
"It was a very close game and it could have gone either way. Our boys fought really hard after the second wicket stand and brought us back into the game. We were 20 to 30 runs short in the final analysis," said M Venkataramana, Tamil Nadu head coach.
"Had Indrajith and Andre Siddarth not been run out, we would have posted a challenging score of 330 plus. Nevertheless it was a good learning experience for the youngsters as they got to know how to fight till the finish and this should come in handy in the next few games," added the former India off-spinner.
After Harsh Gawli fell cheaply to Gurjapneet, the MP duo of Yash Dubey (92) and Himanshu Mantri (90) gelled nicely and raised 178 runs for the second wicket. Both used their feet well and were judicious in their shot selection.Tamil Nadu skipper Narayan Jagadeesan shuffled his bowlers and tried his best to break the duo's partnership, but saw limited success.
When it looked like MP were on course of a big victory, debutant Govinth Ganesh (4/54) struck twice dismissing both Dubey and Mantri.
After that Shubham Sharma and Rishabh Chauhan fell and MP were reduced to 225/5. With Venkatesh Iyer still surviving, Tamil Nadu needed their bowlers to pull up their socks if they are to win this match. Gurjapneet, Sonu and Govinth bowled with lot of fire and zest, scalping Iyer's wicket at 250/6.
But the MP tailenders, specifically ninth wicket pair did not budge."I liked the way our bowlers fought. The medium-pacers tried their best to get the remaining four wickets but managed to get two. Govinth bowled really well. He hit the deck in the right areas and bowled at a lively pace. As I said earlier, had we got some 20 odds runs more we could have won the game," insisted Venkataramana. Opting to bat first earlier, Tamil Nadu got off to an excellent start with B Sai Sudharsan and Jagadeesan forging a century stand with both getting their half-centuries. Once the duo departed, a couple of wickets fell in quick succession before Mohamed Ali (57) and Sunny Sandhu (43) rose to the occasion with valuable contributions.
"Sai (Sudharshan) and Jaggs (Jagadeesan) played with purpose and gave us a good start. Had the middle order consolidated it would have been great. But it happens (run out), luckily our batting depth (Ali and Sunny) helped us to post 280. Our middle order needs to play with lot more authority, less panic and with good coordination. They (youngsters) have the talent, but need to apply better. Anyhow, it was a good learning experience as the game went to the last over," signed off Venkataramana.
