Internet Desk: Mohammad Shami’s brilliant effort with the ball went in vain as Bengal succumbed to 37 runs defeat against Tamil Nadu in the Vijay Hazare Trophy final at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground today. The win was Tamil Nadu’s fifth in the tournament, making it the most successful team.
Chasing a modest total of 218 runs to win, the Bengal batsmen faltered with the bat right from the start. Abhimanyu Eswaran and Agniv Pan were back in the pavilion in the first five overs with the scorecard reading just 4 runs. With a very modest total to defend, Tamil Nadu bowlers made sure that the batsmen didn’t get off to a good start in the first ten overs.
Bengal skipper Manoj Tiwary and Shreevats Goswami tried to pull things back before Rahil Shah struck for Tamil Nadu, getting Shreevats caught by Vijay Shankar for 23 runs. Bengal suffered a huge blow as captain Manoj Tiwary was bowled by Vijay Shankar for 32 runs.
Anustup Majumdar and Sudip Chatterjee tried to revive the Bengal innings with a 65 runs partnership, before Anustup was trapped in front by Baba Aparajith for 24 runs.
A couple of overs later, Sudip was bowled by Rahil Shah for 58 runs and that sealed the game for TN. Mohammad Shami tried to entertain the fans by hitting some big shots but he could manage to hit only one six before getting out for 8. It was just a matter of time before Tamil Nadu cleaned up the Bengal tail.
Eventually, Bengal were dismissed for 180 with Sudip being the top scorer. Aswin Crist, M Mohammad and Rahil Shah, all shared 2 wickets apiece.
Earlier in the day, Tamil Nadu put managed to score 217 in spite of an early batting collapse. Dinesh Karthik, who was the leading run-scorer of the tournament, scored a match-winning century and saved his team from blushes. He was the last batsman to depart when he was dismissed in a bizarre manner for 118. He was well supported by Baba Inderjith and Washington Sundar, who scored 32 and 22 respectively. Mohammad Shami, who is playing the finals to prove his fitness, returned with figures of 4/26 in his 8 overs while Ashok Dinda picked up 3/36.
Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 217 in 47.2 overs (Dinesh Karthik 112, Mohammad Shami 4/28, Ashok Dinda 3/36) beat Bengal 180 (Sudip Chatterjee 58, Aswin Crist 2/23, M Mohammad 2/30) ) by 37 runs.