In a game of slender margins in Group B of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy on Friday, the dismissals of Vijay Shankar and M Shahrukh Khan in the space of 10 deliveries proved costly for Tamil Nadu. In pursuit of 134 against Gujarat at the Emerald Heights International School ground, the southern side withered away after that to lose by 19 runs. This is its second successive defeat in the T20 tournament.
As much as Tamil Nadu will rue not getting over the line, the Axar Patel-led team deserves immense credit for digging its heels in and wresting the initiative. With the bat, Hemang Patel played a pivotal knock (50 n.o., 34b, 4x4, 3x6) to take Gujarat to 133 for nine.
Though contributions from the entire bowling pack followed, left-arm seamer Arzan Nagwaswalla was the standout with figures of 3.5-0-21-4. He got the prized scalp of Tamil Nadu captain Shahrukh, and ended proceedings in the penultimate over with a full ball that castled Gurjapneet Singh.
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Chasing for the first time in this tournament, Tamil Nadu needed one of its top four to bat for a majority of the overs. That was unlikely, however, once it was reduced to 29 for three.
There was a recovery when S. Rithik Easwaran, promoted to No. 4 to hold back the experienced duo of Shahrukh and Shankar, stitched together a 41-run stand with the skipper. But when the chase was seemingly in control, Rithik miscued a slog sweep off Ravi Bishnoi to Saurav Chauhan at cover.
Not long after, a misunderstanding between Shahrukh and Shankar resulted in the latter’s run out. Tamil Nadu would have still been in the hunt if Shahrukh hadn’t been undone by a short ball that he skied to Chauhan at deep midwicket.
What the men in yellow lacked was the sort of measured contribution that came from Hemang’s willow. Despite losing wickets at regular intervals, Gujarat’s No. 7, who came in at 64 for five in the ninth over, batted through to the end and added precious runs with the tail.
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