CHENNAI: Riding on Shahrukh Khan's unbeaten 46 and Athisayaraj Davidson's 3 for 47, Tamil Nadu defeated Railways by six runs in a thrilling Elite Group D match at Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Indore on Saturday.
When 11 runs were required off the final over, Gurjapneet Singh kept his line tight to give away only three runs to seal Tamil Nadu's win.
Both the teams had their moments in the match but TN held their nerve in the final over,
"Gurjapneet bowled brilliantly in the final over. We were confident that he would pull it off. He bowled wicket to wicket, did not bowl short or give the width for the Railways batters to go for shots. Happy that we won and began the season on a winning note," Athisayaraj Davidson told this daily after the match.
Athisayaraj, Varun C, Gurjapneet and Sunny Sandhu bowled in tandem and sent the Railways top order packing. They reduced them to 69 for 6 and expected an early win, but that was not to be. Zubair Khan (46) and Toufik Mondal (57) with their stubborn effort took the match to the wire.
"Yes, it was a collective performance by our bowlers. During the initial phase I bowled wicket to wicket and there was some movement. All of us bowled in turns and were spot on," said Athisayaraj.
"After that Zubair and Toufik got some runs. It happens in this format, sometimes you never know who will score. But we worked on their dismissals as Sai Kishore got Zubair out and I managed to pick Toufik's wicket. We never panicked and we knew that it was a matter of time that we got them out," he added.
Earlier, put in to bat, Tamil Nadu lost Tushar Raheja early but Amit Sathvik (38) and B Sachin (33) combined well and added 65 runs in 44 balls for the second wicket. Then, Shahrukh Khan and R Rajkumar (31) added 55 runs for the fifth wicket which helped Tamil Nadu post 172/7.
"We lost a couple of wickets early then Amit and Sachin did a good job. Later, Shahrukh Khan played brilliantly and stayed till the end to help us get a good score. He and Rajkumar had a good stand. What was good about Shahrukh Khan was his calculated assault and he played his natural game without any worry and this is what we need in this format," complimented Athisayaraj.
Tamil Nadu got four points from this win. Zubair Khan was adjudged as man of the match for his all-round show.
