Vijay Hazare Trophy: TN beats Gujarat, makes it 9 successive wins

Abhinav Mukund

Jaipur: Tamil Nadu thrashed Gujarat by 78 runs in its final Group 'C' match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Wednesday to finish with an all-win record in the 10-team group. Tamil Nadu, who topped the group with 36 points from nine games and second-placed Gujarat (32 points) qualified for the knockout phase to be held in Bengaluru from October 20.

Gujarat captain Parthiv Patel won the toss and put Tamil Nadu in to bat and saw the experienced Abhinav Mukund (79, 68 balls, 13 fours) and Murali Vijay (94, 106 balls, 8 fours, 2 sixes) rattle up 130 for the first wicket. Mukund, who has been in good form for Tamil Nadu through the tournament, came up with some handsome drives while Vijay was his usual elegant self and wasn't afraid to hit the ball in the air.

The opening partnership, which threatened to assume dangerous proportions, was broken by the experienced leggie Piyush Chawla, who had Mukund stumped by Parthiv. All-rounder Washington Sundar, pushed up the order, made 42 (65 balls, 2 fours) and added 82 runs for the second wicket with Vijay. However, Tamil Nadu suffered a jolt, losing Vijay and the prolific skipper Dinesh Karthik (0) in quick succession. While Arzan Rohinton Nagwaswalla ended Vijay's stay by having him caught by T R Patel, Karthik was run out by Rush Kalaria off the first ball he faced.

Barring a partnership of 43 runs between all-rounder Vijay Shankar (23, 28 balls, 1 six) and the in-form Baba Aparajith (25, 22 balls, 1 four, 2 sixes), the Tamil Nadu
lower order fell apart. From 268 for 4, Gujarat bowlers did well to restrict Tamil Nadu to 274 for 9 in 50 overs. Left-arm pacer Kalaria was the best of the lot, finishing with 3 for 36 from 7 overs while Chawla took 2 for 47.

Nagwaswalla ended with 3 for 56 from 9 overs. Faced with the task of making 280 to finish with nine wins from nine games, Gujarat saw two of its best batsmsen - Parthiv Patel (6) and Priyank Panchal fall early. While left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore had Parthiv caught by Washington Sundar, Panchal was caught behind by Karthik off Vijay Shankar's bowling for 12 (11 balls, 1 four).

Bhargav Merai (44) played aggressively and hit a few superb shots and his 50-run third wicket partnership with Manprit Juneja (24) appeared to revive Gujarat's hopes. Juneja became the first of M Mohammed's three victims before Merai was run out by Mukund. Left-hander Axar Patel (55, 55 balls, 3 fours, 2 sixes) resisted Tamil Nadu's surge.

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