Defending champions Tamil Nadu was handed a reality check when domestic minnows Goa, riding on Swapnil Asnodkar’s century, posted an easy four-wicket win in the Vijay Hazare trophy Group C match here on Tuesday. Incidentally this is Goa’s first win in domestic limited overs in a year, after it was blanked in both competitions last season and in the South Zone T20 earlier this year too.
Electing to bat on a slow turner, TN frittered away a good start from openers M. Vijay and M. Kaushik Gandhi, slipping from 89 for no loss to 210. The collapse was scripted by some disciplined spin bowling with the Goa spinners accounting for 35 of the 49 overs bowled.
Vijay and Kaushik, took time to get used to the wicket with less than 40 runs in the first ten overs before finding the boundaries easily. Vijay looked set for a big one before debutant off-spinner Srinivas Fadte, had the opener stumped when the latter walked down the track only to miss a delivery that spun sharply and beat him down the leg side.
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Kaushik, the centurion from the first game then was dismissed by a slower one from medium pacer Vijesh Prabhudesai and was trapped leg before.
While vice-captain B. Aparajith kept (52, 70b, 2x4) himself busy nudging around the field, the Goa spinners had dried up the boundaries and rushed through the overs quickly. The result: wickets kept falling at the other end regularly. TN lost its last seven wickets for just 44 runs.
Left-arm spinner Darshan Misal and Fadte finished with three-wickets haul as Goa operated spinners from the 28th to 48th over conceding 93 runs but picking up six wickets.
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In reply, Goa opener Asnodkar and skipper shared a 98-run stand for the second wicket with the former bringing his experience into play seeing off R. Ashwin and feasting on TN’s medium pacers with some delightful shots over the infield to find the boundaries.
Asnodkar was dropped on 57 by V. Yo Mahesh in the deep square leg boundary off Vijay Shankar and made TN pay for it scoring his sixth List A hundred (103, 109b, 9x4, 2x6).
TN coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar said, “We were not intimidating enough when we batted. We didn’t get enough runs. They showed positive intent and kept looking for runs. We were 30 runs short after being in good position and we couldn’t put pressure on the bowlers.”
Brief scores
Tamil Nadu 210 in 48.5 overs (M Vijay 51, B. Aparajith 52, Darshan Misal three for 42, Srinivas Fadte 3 for 51) lost to Goa 211 for 6 in 46.2 overs (Swapnil Asnodkar 103) by 4 wickets.
Points: Goa 4 (4); TN 0 (4).
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