Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy | Heartbreak for Tamil Nadu as Karnataka clinch title in last-ball thriller

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy | Heartbreak for Tamil Nadu as Karnataka clinch title in last-ball thriller

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Karnataka have won their second domestic tournament this season by beating Tamil Nadu in a game that went to the very last ball. Batting first, Karnataka posted a score of 180 and despite the late hitting of Vijay Shankar and Ravichandran Ashwin, Tamil Nadu fell short by just 1 run.

Brief scores: Karnataka 180/5 in 20 overs (Manish Pandey 60*, Rohan Kadam 35; Murugan Ashwin 2-33, Ravichandran Ashwin 2-34) beat Tamil Nadu 179/6 in 20 overs (Vijay Shankar 44, Baba Aparajith 40; Ronit More 2-32) by 1 run.

Batting first, Karnataka opener KL Rahul and Devdut Padikkal, who has been impressive throughout the tournament, managed to give their team a brisk start in the powerplay. But things changed when Ravichandran Ashwin was brought into the attack as he removed Rahul and Mayank Agarwal off consecutive balls. Rahul managed to get a start (22 off 15 balls) but this time he could not convert it into a big score.

Skipper Manish Pandey then joined Padikkal in the middle and took the attack to the opposition, not letting the momentum given by the openers go away. Things were looking great for Karnataka but just then Padikkal was bowled by Washington Sundar, who sent the southpaw back into the hut having also failed to convert a start (32 off 23 balls). However, it was Pandey's day as he kept on picking the gaps and scoring runs at a brisk pace and the skipper was ably supported from the other end by Rohan Kadam (35 off 28 balls) and Karun Nair (17 off 8 balls). The skipper stepped up to the occasion when his team needed him and scored an unbeaten 60 off 45 balls to help Karnataka post a daunting total of 180.

Needing 181 to win, Tamil Nadu needed a good start from their openers. Shahrukh Khan and Hari Nishanth got off to decent starts but could not convert it into big scores as they lost their wickets in the powerplay. Skipper Dinesh Karthik and Sundar strung a partnership together in order to stabilize the chase. But things began to fall out of place for Tamil Nadu when they lose both the set batsmen with the score 80-4. Needing 101 off the last 10 overs, Tamil Nadu's lower middle order had to fire and so they did with Baba Aparajith (40 off 25 balls) and Vijay Shankar stringing a brilliant partnership of 71 for the fifth wicket.

However, the pendulum swung again in the favour of Karnataka when Ronit More removed Aparajith and Tamil Nadu found themselves in a tricky situation needing 25 off the last two overs with Vijay Shankar and Ashwin at the crease. Shankar managed to score 12 runs in the penultimate over with the batting side needing 13 in the final over which was to be bowled by Krishnappa Gowtham. Ashwin smashed Gowtham for two boundaries off back-to-back balls to make the equation simple for Tamil Nadu-needing 5 off 4 balls.

But Tamil Nadu managed only two runs off the next three balls which included the runs out of Shankar which meant that Murugan Ashwin faced the last ball of the game with Tamil Nadu requiring three to win. Murugan failed to connect and could manage to take only a single and to the delight and elation of the Karnataka players, they won the game by just one run.

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