Tamil Nadu down Baroda to reach Vijay Hazare final

Half-centuries from seasoned campaigner Dinesh Karthik and skipper Vijay Shankar helped Tamil Nadu beat Baroda by six wickets and reach the final of the Vijay Hazare cricket tournament at the Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium here on Thursday.

If Tamil Nadu win the trophy, this will be their fifth title. They last qualified for the summit clash way back in the 2009-2010 season.

Sent in to bowl first, Tamil Nadu bundled out Baroda for a meagre 219 in 49.3 overs and then chased down the runs with consummate ease in 47.3 overs.

Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore (4/59) registered his best List A figures as Baroda faced a middle-order collapse after Kedar Devdhar (46) and Aditya Waghmode (45) shared a 92-run stand for the opening wicket.

Krunal Pandya (30), Pinal Shah (36) and skipper Irfan Pathan (27) also got starts for Baroda before giving away their wickets.

Chasing the target, Tamil Nadu lost openers Kaushik Gandhi (19) and V. Ganga Sridhar Raju (15) quickly before Karthik (77) and Baba Aparajith (28) stemmed the rot with a 60-run third wicket partnership.

The fall of Baba brought in Shankar (53 not out), who stitched a fourth wicket stand of 88 runs with Karthik as the Southern giants almost got to the target before medium pacer Atit Sheth cleaned Karthik's defences.

Placed at a comfortable 183/4, Shankar and Washington Sundar (26) then completed the formalities without any hassle as Tamil Nadu romped home with 15 balls to spare.

For the Baroda side, Atit Sheth (3/36) and Soaeb Tai (1/45) were amongst the wickets.

Brief Scores: Baroda: 219 (Kedar Devdhar 46, Aditya Waghmode 45; Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore 4/59) lose to Tamil Nadu 220/4 (Dinesh Karthik 77, Vijay Shankar 53 not out; Atit Sheth 3/36) by six wickets.

--IANS

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