Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Hyderabad too good for Tamil Nadu

Against a varied attack that bowled with precision and created pressure, Tamil Nadu capitulated to hand Hyderabad a 72-run win in their Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 tournament game on Monday.

Left-handed opener Tanmay Agarwal, light on his feet and deft with his placements, made a 49-ball 85 (12x4, 2x6).

Hyderabad ticked most of the boxes. The side was hungry on the field and ruthless in the executions of its plans. The side won by a mile.

For Tamil Nadu, all the batting boxes were empty. Chasing a combative 166, Tamil Nadu hardly found momentum, lost wickets to forgettable shots and was bundled out for 93. It was a display bereft of character.

Against a varied attack that bowled with precision and created pressure, the host capitulated to hand Hyderabad a 72-run win in their Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 tournament game here on Monday.

Left-handed opener Tanmay Agarwal, light on his feet and deft with his placements, made a 49-ball 85 (12x4, 2x6) and then the Hyderabad pace trio of Mohammed Siraj, Ravi Kiran and C.V. Milind harried the batsmen with their line and bounce.

Left-armer Milind scalped four, angling the ball across at a lively pace and surprising the batsmen with his lift. Spinners Mehdi Hasan, a left-armer, and leggie Akash Bhandari bowled tight. With the asking rate climbing, the home batsmen succumbed to mounting pressure.

While Abhinav Mukund fell to a Ravi Kiran delivery of telling line and extra bounce, skipper Vijay Shankar was caught behind off a Milind ball that left him.

The slippery Milind struck again when B. Aparajith picked the wrong ball to pull. The experienced Dinesh Karthick and R. Sathish were bowled attempting crude slogs off Bhandari and Siraj. The match as a contest was over at that point.

Earlier, Hyderabad had a stroke of luck at the very start after winning the toss. Indeed, Tanmay was fortunate to be adjudged ‘not out’ on 6 when replays showed him clearly edging paceman T. Natarajan to ‘keeper N. Jagadeesan.

This was Tanmay’s day and he made the most of it, pulling and cutting particularly well. He is strong off his back-foot, harnesses the pace on the ball and uses the angles on the field intelligently.

Perhaps his finest stroke on the day was a down-the-track inside-out cover-driven six on one knee off leg-spinner M. Ashwin.

Ashwin, Tamil Nadu’s hero against Karnataka, discovered how fickle success can be when he was taken for 47 runs in his four overs. Tanmay disrupted his length. The 68-run partnership between Tanmay and Badrinath for the second wicket in 50 balls provided the innings substance and thrust.

Badrinath (34, 26b, 4x4) picked three successive boundaries off seamer Vijay Shankar during his busy stay in an arena he only knows too well.

Tamil Nadu came back well in the last few overs with left-armer Natarajan sending down his yorkers capably.

But then, Hyderabad had already put itself in box seat. It closed out the match with skipper Badrinath ringing in smart changes.

South Zone:Brief scores: Hyderabad 165 for five in 20 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 85, S. Badrinath 34, T. Natarajan two for 31) bt Tamil Nadu 93 in 19.1 overs (C.V. Milind four for 18, Ravi Kiran two for 20, T. Ravi Teja two for 10). Hyderabad 4, Tamil Nadu 0.

Karnataka 192 for seven in 20 overs (Mayank Agarwal 67, K. Gowtham 60, Jalaj Saxena three for 30) bt Kerala 173 for six in 20 overs (Vishnu Vinod 64, Rohan Prem 45 not out, J. Suchith two for 16). Karnataka 4, Kerala 0.

Goa 145 for four in 20 overs (Keenan Vaz 35 not out, Swapnil Asnodlar 75) lost to Andhra 148 for four in 18.5 overs (Ashwin Hebbar 83 not out, D.B. Ravi Teja 32 not out). Andhra 4, Goa 0.