TAMIL NADU FAIL TO PROGRESS

Surat, March 2: Murali Vijay struck a breath-taking hundred as Tamil Nadu defeated Meghalaya by 92 runs in their last Group B match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament here on Saturday. However, the win was not enough for Tamil Nadu to make it to the knock-out stage, as they ended on the fourth position in Group B.

Electing to bat first, Tamil Nadu rode on Vijay's

107 off 67 balls to post a massive 213/2 on the board and later restricted Meghalaya to 121/4 at the Lalabhai Contractor stadium here.

Vijay and opener Washington Sundar (53 off

37 balls) laid the foundation for a big score with a

139-run stand for the first wicket. While Sundar struck five fours and two sixes, Vijay was more aggressive, hitting nine fours and five sixes.

Sundar's fall in the

15thover did not deter Vijay from playing his shots. He got able support from R Vivek (36 not out off

14 balls). Vijay departed soon after bringing up his hundred, but he had taken Tamil Nadu past the 200run mark. All Meghalaya bowlers had an off day in the field. Meghalaya were never in the hunt while chasing and lost wickets at regular intervals.

Leggie Murugan Ashwin shone with the ball to return with figures of 2-16, while skipper Ravichandran Ashwin and medium-pacer M Mohammed grabbed a wicket each, as they restricted Meghalaya for 121/4. For Meghalaya, Gurinder Singh top scored with unbeaten 38 From Group B, Vidarbha with 20 points are at the top and are through to the next round.

Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu had 16 points each, but hosts Gujarat with a better net run rate scraped through to the knock-out stage. Saurashtra registered a five-wicket win against Goa in their last Group C game.