Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy: Tamil Nadu breeze past Rajasthan to seal a place in the final
Tamil Nadu secured their place in the final of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2019-20 by defeating Rajasthan in the second semi-final. The southern state's high-profile players shined as they crushed their opponents by 7 wickets.
Earlier in the day, Dinesh Karthik won the toss and invited Rajasthan to bat first at Surat. Captain, Deepak Chahar pulled off a surprise by opening the innings for his team. However, that move did not prove to be a masterstroke as R. Sai Kishore sent him back to the pavilion in the third over and he was followed by Chahar's opening partner, Ankit Lamba soon after.
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The trio of Vijay Shankar, T. Natarajan and Washington Sundar did not allow any batsman to settle in the middle as Rajasthan could only score 112 runs in their 20 overs. Rajesh Bishnoi tried his best with 23 to take his side to a respectable total but he did not receive proper support from the other end.
Chasing 113, Tamil Nadu lost their opening batsman Hari Nishanth for a duck on the fourth ball of the innings. However, Ravichandran Ashwin stitched a 69-run partnership with Sundar to take their team to safety. The southern state lost the wickets of Ashwin and Karthik Baba Aparajith and Sundar completed the formalities, with the latter starring with a half-century.
Karthik’s men will now lock horns with the defending champions, Karnataka in the tournament’s final. Both teams had earlier met in the Vijay Hazare Trophy’s final where Karnataka bulldozed Tamil Nadu. Hence, the latter would be keen to avenge that particular defeat in their upcoming encounter.