CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu's resurgence in white-ball cricket continued as they entered the semifinals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, crushing Karnataka by 151 runs in the quarterfinals in Jaipur on Tuesday.
The Vijay Shankar-led side plans went as per the script as they first put a mammoth total of 354/8, and an all-round effort from the bowlers led to Karnataka being bowled out for 203 in 39 overs. Overall, it was a collective performance at the KL Saini grounds.
Having already won the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s, Tamil Nadu are two wins away from winning their second title of the season. “It was a brilliant show by the boys. Everything went as per plans and each one player their roles to the 'T',” TN's chief coach M Venkataramana said. “Credit to our batters to first put a good total which in turn gave our bowlers to have a go at the Karnataka top order. Karnataka is one of the tough sides in the tournament and to beat them one has to put up a professional display and I am glad our boys did it,” he said.
After a strong start in the group stages, Tamil Nadu lost their way towards the end of the group phase, losing two successive matches to Pondicherry and Baroda. However, the team got a chance to regroup and reflect on the failures during their quarantine period in Jaipur. The end result was that they put up a commanding show with opener N Jagadeesan, who lost vice-captaincy to Washington Sundar on the morning of the match, top-scoring with 102. This was his fifty-plus score of the season.
Batting first, TN lost Baba Aparajith early, but Jagadeesan and R Sai Kishore stitched 147-run stand for the second wicket to set the tone.
“It was a splendid effort from Jagadeesan. It was an important inning for him and also the team. In a knock-out game, it is imperative that someone sticks around and plays a big inning. Jagadeesan was judicious in his shot selection and paced his innings well and this served our cause well,” Venkatramana said.
The 9 AM start and batting first meant TN took the move to send Sai Kishore in at No 3 to stop Karnataka from making further inroads. While the plan was to see off the initial period, the all-rounder did more than the role assigned to him by scoring 61 runs.
Though TN appeared to lose their way at 252/5 in 40.1 overs, Shahrukh Khan ensured the platform laid by the top-order wasn't going to be wasted. Playing an innings that is becoming a characteristic of his, his whirlwind knock of 79 off 39 balls (7x4s, 6x6) buried Karnataka.
“Shahrukh played a matured innings today to remain unbeaten. Pressure will definitely be there when you are the finisher. But the point is that he understands his role and enjoys it too. We have told him that in the manner in which he plays there will be times when he could get out cheaply. We have also told him that he has the full backing of the team and he should not change his style of play. This assurance has given him the confidence and he is doing his job,” the coach said.
With 354 runs to defend, the bowlers led by R Silambarasan (4/36) and Washington Sundar (3/43) ensured TN made it to the semifinals without any hiccups.
Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 354/8 in 50 overs (N Jagadeesan 102, M Shahrukh Khan 79 n.o, R Sai Kishore 61, Dinesh Karthik 44, Praveen Dubey 3/67) bt Karnataka 203 in 39 ovs (S Sharath 43,R Silambarasan 4/36, Washington Sundar 3/43).