TN goes down to Karnataka in SMAT

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu slumped to its third successive defeat in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, going down to Karnataka by seven wickets in Indore on Sunday to lie at a lowly sixth with eight points from five games in Group B.

Opting to bat first, TN batting came a cropper in a must-win match getting bowled out for a paltry 90. Such was the ferocity of Karnataka bowling that TN was reduced to seven for four in the third over. Medium pacer Vasuki Koushik caused the damage early on accounting for the key wickets of N Jagadeesan, Boopathi Kumar and Vijay Shankar.

Koushik finished with impressive figures of 4-1-10-3. Varun Chakravarthy emerged the highest scorer with a gritty 24 (21b, 3x4, 1x6). Captain M Shahrukh Khan chipped in with 19. Manoj Bhandage was the other bowler to take three wickets as he finished with three for 19. In reply, Karnataka made mincemeat of the lowly target with opener Manish Pandey scoring 42 (29b, 4x4, 2x6). His opening partner Mayank Agarwal complemented him with a useful 30 (27b, 4x4) as the duo put on 76 runs for the first wicket in 9.1 overs. TN’s Gurjapneet Singh picked up two wickets for 15.

Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 90 in 20 overs (V Koushik 3/10, M Bhandage 3/19) lost to Karnataka 93/3 in 11.3 overs (M Pandey 42)