TN trounce Vidarbha, emerge group topper

Thiruvananthapuram : Tamil Nadu thrashed Vidarbha by 113 runs on Sunday in a Group 'B' match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 cricket tournament here to advance to the super league stage as the group topper.

Three teams-Rajasthan, Vidarbha and Kerala- finished with 16 points.

Rajasthan had the best net run-rate of 1.938 followed by Vidarbha (0.566) and Kerala (0.503). The top two teams qualify for the super league.

Skipper Dinesh Karthik came up with another superb knock (58, 32 balls, 5 fours, 3 sixes) to spur the team to 168 for 8 in 20 overs before the bowlers stepped in to rout Vidarbha for 55 in 14.5 to seal a big win.

Tamil Nadu advanced to the super league to be played in Surat, topping Group 'B' with 20 points from 6 games (5 won, 1 lost).

Two-time Ranji champion Vidarbha won the toss and sent the opposition into bat and saw the back of the experienced Murali Vijay (7) in the second over.

Opener M S Washington (5) fell in the fourth over to leave Tamil Nadu at 23 for 2 before Karthik and B Aparajith (33, 27 balls, 1 four, 2 sixes) took over and kept the scoreboard ticking.

Their 83-run third-wicket partnership set things up for Tamil Nadu before Vijay Shankar (26, 17 balls, 1 four, 2 sixes) and M Shahrukh Khan (19, 17 balls, 1 four, 2 sixes) pushed the score past 150.

Chasing a stiff target, Vidarbha suffered an early setback when left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore (3 for 9) had opener Jitesh Sharma caught behind for a duck in the first over.

Washington Sundar and T Natarajan pegged Vidarbha back by dismissing Akshay Kolhar (3) and Salabh Shrivastava (14).

They never recovered from the blows and folded for 55 as Vijay Shankar got into the act and picked up three wickets including that of captain Ganesh Satish (4).

Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 168 for 8 in 20 overs (Dinesh Karthik 58, B Aparajith 33, Vijay Shankar 26, Yash Thakur 3/23) beat Vidarbha 55 all out in 14.5 overs (R Sai Kishore 3/9, Vijay Shankar 3/12). TN: 4 points, Vidarbha: 0.

Tripura 69 for 7 in 16 overs (Milind Kumar 22 not out, Joydeep Banik 22, Aniket Choudhary 3/15, Rahul Chahar 2/18) lost to Rajasthan 74 for 1 in 5 overs (Mahipal Lomror 50 not out, Ankit Lamba 21 not out). Rajasthan: 4 points, Tripura: 0.

Kerala 119 for 8 in 20 overs (Sanju Samson 38, SRP Saini 2/23, Ankit Rajpoot 2/24) beat Uttar Pradesh42 for 4 in 7 overs (Akshdeep Nath 30 not out) by 1 run via VJD method. Kerala; 4 points, UP: 0.