Tamil Nadu thump Gujarat to enter Vijay Hazare semis

Tamil Nadu defeated defending champions Gujarat by five wickets in the quarter-finals of the Vijay Hazare 50-overs domestic cricket tournament at the Palam Ground here on Sunday.

Defending champions Gujarat needed a gutsy performance from middle-order batsman Rujul Bhatt (83 not out) to tally 211 as the western outfit failed to put up a strong partnership.

Samit Gohel (39) was the second highest scorer for Gujarat, as reliable batsmen Priyank Krit Panchal (14), Bharghav Merai (7) and Chiragh Gandhi (3) had a bad day.

With Vijay Shankar (3-45), Rahil Shah (2-34) and R. Sai Kishore (2-35) picking wickets regularly, the Gujarat inning was wrapped up for 211 in 49.4 overs.

In reply, Tamil Nadu were driven by V. Ganga Sridhar Raju's 85 to overhaul the target with five wickets and 7.4 overs to spare.

Baba Aparajith (34), Dinesh Karthik (21) and Kaushik Gandhi (18) batted around Raju to put their team in a strong position. M. Mohammed (35 not out) finished the game strongly in favour of Tamil Nadu to oust Ranji Trophy champions Gujarat.

For Gujarat, Ishwar Chaudhary, Rohit Dahiya, Panchal, Bhatt and Axar Patel took a wicket each.

--IANS

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