Baroda hammers TN by 102 runs

Tamil Nadu ended it's campaign in this year's Ranji Trophy tournament by losing its final Group "C" match to Baroda by 102 runs here.

Requiring 233 for a win, the visiting team was all out for 130 in 65.5 overs on the final day today.

Baba Aparajith was the only one to offer resistance, scoring 60. For Baroda, Lukman Meriwala and all-rounder Swapnil K Singh took four wickets each.

Tamil Nadu thus finished the Ranji season with 11

points from six games, having failed to even win a match. It was an abject surrender by the Tamil Nadu batsmen on the final day as none showed the inclination to fight. Meriwala ripped the Tamil Nadu top-order apart, removing captain Abhinav Mukund, N Jagadeesan and B Indrajith to leave them tottering at 16 for 3.

It was downhill for TN as wickets kept falling at regular intervals with only Aparajith and V Yomahesh (23) hanging on for a significant period.

Madhya Pradesh, which outclassed Odisha in another game at Indore by seven wickets, qualified for the quarterfinals along with Mumbai.

MP's win knocked out Andhra Pradesh, which finished with 19 points. BRIEF SCORES: Baroda 309 and 197 beat Tamil Nadu 274 and 130 all out (B Aparajith 60, N Meriwala 4 for 22, Swapnil K Singh 4 for 21) by 102 runs. At Indore: Odisha 147 and 350 all out in 138.2 overs (Subhransu Senapati 125, Mihir Hirwani 5 for 97) lost to Madhya Pradesh 388 and 111 for 3 in 37 overs (Devendra Bundela 50 not out) by seven wickets.