Baroda to meet TN in T20 final

AHMEDABAD: Captain Kedar Devdhar played a captain’s knock as his 64 helped Baroda beat Punjab by 25 runs in the semi-final and set up the final clash with Tamil Nadu in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy held here on Friday.

Riding on Devdhar’s 64, Baroda posted a challenging 160 for three batting first. Punjab captain Mandeep Singh’s unbeaten 42 was the only bright spark for Punjab as they could only manage 138 for eight in their 20 overs.

Earlier, KB Arun Karthik led Tamil Nadu into their second successive final with an unbeaten 89-run knock that shaped their seven-wicket victory over Rajasthan. Arun Karthik’s 89-run partnership with skipper Dinesh Karthik (26 not out) meant that Tamil Nadu overhauled the 155-run target with eight balls to spare. TN had lost the summit clash by just one run to Karnataka, last year.

Rajasthan’s decision to bat first at the Sardar Patel stadium seem to be working well but Tamil Nadu restricted them to a sub-par 154 for nine despite skipper Ashok Menaria’s 51 off 32 balls.

Rajasthan lost opener Bharat Sharma (0) in the first over, as Baba Aparajith took a diving catch off left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore (2/16). Aditya Garhwal (29) took on medium pacer Aswin Crist, striking successive boundaries in the third over but he was unable to convert his start and perished in the fifth over.

Brief scores: Baroda 160/3 in 20 ov (K Devdhar 64, K Kakade 53*) beat Punjab 135/8 in 20 ov (M Singh 42*; L Meriwala 3/28) by 25 runs; Rajasthan 154/9 in 20 ov (A Menaria 51, A Gupta 45; Sai Kishore 2/16) lost to Tamil Nadu 158/3 in 18.4 ov (A Karthik 89*) by 7 wickets.