Kolkata: Tamil Nadu rode on C Hari Nishaanth’s unbeaten 92 and skipper Dinesh Karthik’s powerful batting to defeat Jharkhand by 66 runs in Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament opener at Eden Gardens on Sunday (January 10).
Put to bat first Tamil Nadu posted a total of 189/5 in their quota of overs while in reply Jharkhand could only manage to score 123 losing 7 wickets.
Tamil Nadu skipper Karthik said, “First match of the season for us in the T20s and we’ve gotten off to a good start. I think we have been lucky in a lot of places, played some good cricket. It was great to see Hari Nishaanth bat the way he does, putting up partnerships in the opening and in the middle. I am happy to get some touch and get my batting going. Overall I think it was definitely a solid performance.”
Winning start for @TNCACricket in the #SyedMushtaqAliT20! 👏@DineshKarthik and Co. beat Jharkhand by 6⃣6⃣ runs to bag 4⃣ points. #JHAvTN
Scorecard 👉 https://t.co/JUYuOvqPTc pic.twitter.com/mSBU1MBo5w
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) January 10, 2021
“I think with the ball everybody delivered. They bowled in some good areas, we tried to stick to our plan and we did a good job. Every game is important in this tournament and we’ll try to maintain the intensity as much as possible. Me as a captain very happy with the effort from the boys,” he added.
TN got off to a good start thanks to their openers Nishaanth and Narayan Jagadeeshan who stiched 72-run partnership till Anukul Roy removed the latter one on 27. TN’s prolific all-rounder Vijay Shankar went back quickly too after Shahbaz Nadeem ran him out on 4 and skipper Karthik came out to arrest the slide.
Karthik smashed a quickfire 46 off 17 balls which included 4 sixes and three boundaries while Nishaanth stayed unbeaten on 92 (8*4, 3*6) off 64 deliveries to set a target of 190 runs for their opponents.
While defending TN bowlers showed discipline to lasso Jharkhand batters and kept taking wickets in regular intervals to reduce their opponents to 79/6 in 14.1 overs. Sonu Yadav picked up 3 wickets while Sandeep Warrier bagged 2 for Tamil Nadu.
Brief Scores: Tamil Nadu 189 for 5 in 20 overs (C Hari Nishanth 92 not out, Dinesh Karthik 46) beat Jharkhand 123 for 7 in 20 overs (Anand Singh 28 not out, Sonu Yadav 3/31, Sandeep Warrier 2/22) by 66 runs.
