Tamil Nadu beat Baroda by 6 wickets in the first semi-final of the 2017 Vijay Hazare Trophy at the Ferozshah Kotla stadium in New Delhi. It was a complete domination by Vijay Shankar and co. as they outclassed their opponents in all the three aspects of the game.
Chasing 220 to win, Tamil Nadu lost both their openers with just 35 runs on the board. Dinesh Karthik and Baba Aparajith rescued TN with a 60-run partnership before Aparajith perished for 28. Karthik continued his good form in the tournament and in the company of skipper Vijay Shankar, he put on an 88-run stand for the fifth wicket and kept TN in control of the run chase. He scored yet another fifty, his fifth in the tournament and got out for 77. Washington Sundar walked out to bat and looked to finish things off in a hurry. Vijay Shankar remained unbeaten on 53 off 67 balls as TN romped home with 15 balls to spare.
After choosing to bat first, Baroda got off to a good start, courtesy the 92-run stand for the opening wicket. Kedar Devdhar and Aditya Waghmode made sure that there was no early breakthrough for the Tamil Nadu pacers.
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Devdhar was the first batsman to depart as the slow left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore had him caught by Rahil Shah for 46. Waghmode, in the company of Baroda’s hero from the last match, Krunal Pandya, tried to pull things back. Things were going well for Baroda and it was when Washington Sundar struck twice in one over. He had Waghmode caught and bowled for 45 and two balls later, Sundar castled the dangerous Deepak Hooda for a duck.
Soon after, Baroda lost the plot in the game when they lost two of their main batsmen in two balls. First, it was Krunal Pandya, who got out to Rahil Shah for 30 and off the next ball, Yusuf Pathan tried to go over the top and ended up getting caught by Aswin Crist for 4. Baroda were reduced to 138/5 in the 33 overs with skipper Irfan Pathan and Pinal Shah at the crease without facing a single ball.
Irfan tried to revive the innings but lost his wicket against the run of play. Shah scored some valuable runs towards the end before his team was dismissed for 219 in 49.3 overs. Devdhar top-scored for Baroda with 46 while Sai Kishore was the pick of TN bowlers as he picked up 4 wickets conceding 59 runs with Rahil Shah, Sundar and Aswin Crist chipped in with two wickets apiece.
Tamil Nadu will face the winner of the other semi-final (Jharkhand vs Bengal) in the finals at the same venue on Sunday. Dinesh Karthik was adjudged the player of the match for his 77 off 107 balls with the help of four boundaries.
Brief scores: Baroda 219 in 49.3 overs (Kedar Devdhar 46, Aditya Waghmode45, Sai Kishore 4/59) lost to Tamil Nadu 220/4 in 47.3 overs (Dinesh Karthik 77, Vijay Shankar 53*, Atit Sheth 3/36) by 6 wickets.
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