Madhya Pradesh eliminates Tamil Nadu with a resounding win

Madhya Pradesh was able to chase down TN’s score of 302 with utmost ease thanks to a stupendous knock of 158 off just 111 balls from opener Rajat Patidar. TN, which still has two matches remaining, will next meet Andhra on Sunday. 

Tamil Nadu captain Vijay Shankar didn’t take to the field after he was bothered by back spasms while batting. In his place, his deputy B Aparajith controlled the proceedings. Patidar and wicketkeeper Naman Ojha added 65 runs for the first wicket before the latter fell to Aswin Crist for 39 (5X4, 1X6). 

That brought together Patidar and Rameez Khan, who took the game away from the host with a huge 209-run partnership in 243 balls. Patidar had a stroke of luck when he was dropped by K Vignesh who was running backwards from mid-on with the former on 39. The unfortunate bowler was offspinner R Ashwin. 

Patidar made the most of that reprieve and dominated the bowling from there on. 

Ashwin, who has bowled with control throughout the tournament and tried his hand at leg-spin too, could not do anything to break the partnership or stem the flow of runs. He finished with figures of none for 64 in 10 overs. 

‘Earlier, Tamil Nadu recovered from a shaky start, losing Ganga Sridhar Raju (0) in the third over and Kaushik Gandhi (7) in the seventh over as wicketkeeper-batsman N Jagadeesan (99) strung together a 107-run stand in 120 balls with B Aparajith (43). Jagadeesan was unlucky to miss his hundred by a whisker as he fell caught behind to Puneet Dubey on 99. 

Vijay Shankar was his usual aggressive self and ran  hard between the wickets and compiled a stylish 84 (62 balls, 7 fours, two sixers) but his exit triggered a collapse. The team slid from 284 for 5 to end up with 302 for 8 with the last five overs yielding just 20 runs.