Hazare Trophy: Jagadeesan, spinners power TN to a big win

The Kerala batters imploded on a challenging surface to lose the must-win Elite Group A match against Tamil Nadu by 77 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy at the ADSA Railway Ground here on Thursday.

Chasing a target of 295, captain Rohan Kunnummal gave Kerala a bright start as he flayed the attack to race to 73 off 45 balls, studded with seven fours and five sixes. However, Rohan holed out to Sonu Yadav at long on off Sachin Rathi against the run of play. B. Aparajith, who played fluently for his 35, was stumped smartly by N. Jagadeesan off Rathi.

Vishnu Vinod (35, 31b, 3×4, 2×6) kept Kerala in the hunt, but he pulled a short ball from Mohamed Ali to Sunny Sandhu at long-on and the dismissal started the slide. Kerala’s lower-order batters caved in as the Tamil Nadu spinners maximised the returns from a slow, gripping surface.

Earlier, captain Jagadeesan was in sublime touch and smashed a century (139, 126b, 9×4, 5×6) to set up a challenging total. Jagadeesan added 86 runs with S.R. Athish (33) for the first wicket. But it was the fourth-wicket stand of 73 runs from 40 balls with Bhoopathi Kumar (35, 20b, 2×4, 2×6) that gave impetus to the innings. However, Eden Apple Tom (six for 46) ran through the lower-order to restrict Tamil Nadu to 294 for eight. In the end it proved more than enough.

The law of averages caught up with an unbeaten Karnataka, which stumbled to an eight-wicket defeat against Madhya Pradesh.

Karnataka started well with Mayank Agarwal (49) and Devdutt Padikkal (35) adding 77 for the first wicket. But the run out of Karun Nair (10) by Akshat Raghuwanshi started the collapse as Karnataka slipped from 98 for one to 160 for eight. Vidyadhar Patil’s unbeaten 34 gave some respectability to the total.

Openers Yash Dubey (40) and Himanshu Mantri (34) gave Madhya Pradesh a flying start by adding 78 in 12.5 overs. Venkatesh Iyer (65 n.o., 33b, 4×4, 5×6) and Tripursh Singh (36 n.o., 12b, 3×4, 3×6) biffed 75 runs off 25 balls to wrap up the win in just 23.2 overs and seal a place in the quarterfinals.

The scores: Elite: Group A (Ahmedabad): Tamil Nadu 294/8 in 50 overs (N. Jagadeesan 139, Eden Apple Tom 6/46) bt Kerala 217 in 40.2 overs (Rohan Kunnummal 73, Sachin Rathi 4/32, Mohamed Ali 4/36).

Karnataka 207 in 47.4 overs (Mayank Agarwal 49, Shivang Kumar 5/45) lost to Madhya Pradesh 208/3 in 23.2 overs (Yash Dubey 40, Venkatesh Iyer 65 n.o.).

Tripura 320 in 50 overs (Sridam Paul 150, Rajat Dey 102, Sushant Mishra 6/52) bt Jharkhand 123 in 31.1 overs (Manishi 40, Abhijit Sarkar 4/40).

Rajasthan 269/8 in 50 overs (Ramnivas Golada 64, Karan Lamba 108) bt Pondicherry 137 in 26.5 overs (Nitin Pranav 56).

Final placings: Karnataka 7-6-1-24 (0.544); Madhya Pradesh 7-5-2-20 (0.834); Kerala 7-4-3-16 (0.554); Jharkhand 7-4-3-16 (-0.042); Tamil Nadu 7-3-4-12 (0.509); Tripura 7-3-4-12 (0.125); Rajasthan 7-2-5-8 (-0.717); Pondicherry 7-1-6-4 (-1.849).