Tamil Nadu reached the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for the second year in a row following a dominant performance over Rajasthan in the semifinal on Friday (January 29). While the bowlers set up the win with an excellent comeback at the death, experienced campaigner Arun Karthik was the star with the bat as he forged an unbeaten partnership of 89 alongside skipper Dinesh Karthik to guide TN to the final.
SYED MUSHTAQ ALI TROPHY, 2020-21
Dominant Tamil Nadu reach SMAT final again
Dinesh Karthik hit an unbeaten 26 in the chase. © Getty
Rajasthan made a poor start with the bat after opting to bat first when Bharat Sharma fell for a four-ball duck in the opening over. Aditya Garhwal then struck a few boundaries to get Rajasthan going but just when he breaking free against Baba Aparajith, the batsman found the fielder at deep midwicket. Following his departure, skipper Ashok Menaria took charge as he rounded off the powerplay in fantastic fashion for Rajasthan by striking three fours and a six in a row.
Despite losing the openers, Rajasthan were well placed at 56/2 by the end of the powerplay. Menaria, usually a watchful batsman, went after the TN bowling attack as Rajasthan continued to score freely. Racing to 100 after just 11 overs, Rajasthan set themselves up for a score beyond 180 but TN then made a terrific comeback at the death.
Menaria, who had gone past fifty, was Sai Kishore's second wicket and Mahipal Lomror departed without making an impact in the very next over. Losing those two quick wickets, Rajasthan never managed to recover as TN applied the choke. In what turned out to be a disastrous finish, Rajasthan added only 24 runs to
