Tamil Nadu to play Bengal in final

Defending champions Tamil Nadu will play Bengal in the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy after both registered constrasting victories in their semi-final matches on Saturday.

Tamil Nadu crushed Madhya Pradesh by 134 runs in their last four match, while Bengal got the better of Karnataka by six wickets with just an over to spare.

Electing to bat first, skipper Abhinav Mukund led from the front with a brilliant century helping Tamil Nadu post a huge 348 in their 50 overs. In reply, Madhya Pradesh kept losing wickets at regular intervals to fold up on 214 in 43.1 overs with R Satish claiming four for 16 in five overs and Yo Mahesh taking three for 49.

Manoj Tiwary carried Bengal to victory with an unbeaten innings of 61 as they reached the victory target of 231, losing six wickets with just six deliveries remaining. Captain Rahul Dravid (29) failed to build on after a steady start with C Gautham top scoring with a fleunt knock of 72 from 84 deliveries to help Karnataka post 230 for nine.

Tamil Nadu acting skipper Abhinav Mukund and S Anirduddh built a solid foundation by scoring 177 runs for the opening wicket off 32 overs before the latter was dismissed for 76 that came off 87 balls with seven hits to the fence.

Mukund took 107 balls to complete his century, while Badrinath raced to his fifty off just 36 balls with six fours and one six.

The duo, however, departed in quick successions as Mukund was dismissed after scoring 130, having 12 boundaries and a six in his 137-ball knock, while Badrinath fell for a quickfire knock of 58 from 40 deliveries, laced with eight boundaries and a six.

Anand Singh (43) Mohnish Mishra (41) and Naman Oja (31) were the main contributors for Madhya Pradesh.

R Satish was the star performer for Tamil Nadu taking four wickets for 16 runs while Yo Mahesh finished with three for 40.