Riding on B. Aparajith’s half-century and Varun Chakravarthy’s three for 24, defending champions Tamil Nadu defeated Chandigarh by 56 runs in its final Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy league match at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Thursday (Elite Group E).
Put into bat, Tamil Nadu made 161 for six with skipper Aparajith making 67 (55b, 4x4, 5x6) and was helped by C. Hari Nishaanth (26) and Washington Sundar (27), who chipped in with useful contributions.
Aparajith and Washinton Sundar added 73 runs for the fourth wicket which helped TN post a competitive score.
In reply, Chandigarh got off poorly in the PowerPlay and was reduced to 28 for four in the seventh over with Varun scalping two wickets.
Chandigarh couldn’t recover from this with only Bhagmender Lather top-scoring with an unbeaten 38 as it was bowled out for just 105.
TN pacers Sandeep Warrier and T. Natarajan chipped in with two wickets each to keep their side’s chance alive.
In the other match, Bengal defeated Chhattisgarh by 53 runs to secure its place in the knockouts and is likely to top the group.
Chhattisgarh with 14 points after five matches, needs to ensure it doesn’t lose its final match against Odisha to progress to the next round or else TN with 16 points will go through alongside Bengal.
In a script similar to the TN game, Bengal too made 161 for five after being asked to bat first, thanks to Shahbaz Ahmed’s breezy 48 off just 28 balls (2x4, 4x6).
Earlier, skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran gave the team a quick start with a 27-ball 33 before Ritwik Roy Chowdhury (31) and Shahbaz stitched together 62 runs for the fourth wicket.
Chasing 162 and looking to seal its place in the knockouts, Chhattisgarh’s innings never got going as batters struggled to keep pace with the asking rate.
Left-arm spinner Pradipta Pramanik was the wrecker-in-chief as he scalped four wickets (4/13) to bowl out Chhattisgarh for just 108.
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