Karthik steers TN into final
Vizag, March 27: Half-centuries from rookie N. Jagadeesan (71) and seasoned Dinesh Karthik (93) led Tamil Nadu to a 73-run win over India A in a Deodhar Trophy match here on Monday. With this win, Tamil Nadu qualified for the final where they will meet India B on Wednesday.
With a 159-run partnership, Karthik and Jagadeesan helped set the Harbhajan Singh-led team a 304-run target. The TN spinners then defended the total at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium. Left-arm spinners
Rahil Shah and Sai Kishore claimed three wickets apiece while M. Ashwin and M.S. Washington Sundar picked a wicket each.
After Tamil Nadu opted to bat, Shardul Thakur accounted for Ganga Sridhar Raju to end the opening stand and claimed Kaushik Gandhi a ball later to leave the team on 51 for
two. TN’s in form batsman, Dinesh then joined Jagadeesan in forging a solid partnership. The pair steadily milked the India A attack to take the side past the 200-run mark until KrunalPandya struck. The left-arm spinner had Jagadeesan stumped for 71 to leave TN on 210/3. 23 runs later, the wicketkeeper-batsman was dismissed by Thakur in the 41st over. Baba Indrajith, who then took guard saw the team past the 300-run mark with the lower middle-order. He was unbeaten on 36 off 28 as he took the team to 303/6 with M. Ashwin (12 off 13).