Dinesh Karthik Slams Fifty As Tamil Nadu Beat Baroda In Vijay Hazare Trophy Clash

Veteran Dinesh Karthik was back at his vintage best to smash a quickfire half-century as Tamil Nadu overcame a jittery start to down Baroda by 38 runs in a low-scoring group E match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy domestic one-dayers, in Mumbai on Wednesday. Put in, Tamil Nadu were reeling at 52/5 when the skipper dig in with all his experience to rescue the team with a 51-ball 68 featuring nine fours and two sixes for his 40th List A fifty.

Tamil Nadu were soon reduced to 52/6, but Karthik held fort and put together a 75-run partnership with Shahrukh Khan (31; 39b) to help them go past 150.

Lukman Meriwala (4/21 from 7 overs) and Ninad Rathva (3/23 from 7.3 overs) were the pick of the bowlers for Baroda as Tamil Nadu's innings lasted just 33.3 overs.

In reply, Baroda were shot out for 124 in 23.3 overs with T Natarajan leading the charge in his 7-1-38-4, while spin twins Varun Chakravarthy and R Sai Kishore sharing five wickets between them.

Padikkal on song

Karnataka batter Devdutt Padikkal continued with his silken touch in the format, scoring a 57-ball 93 not out to steer them to a seven-wicket win over Bihar in a group C contest at Ahmedabad.

Batting at No 4, Padikkal hit nine boundaries and five sixes as Karnataka made short work of Bihar, chasing down the 218-target in just 33.4 overs.

This was the India A batter's fourth fifty-plus score in as many matches and he also has a century to his name to be the leading rungetter of the meet.

Openers Mayank Agarwal (28) and Ravikumar Samarth (4) got out cheaply but Padikkal and Nikin Jose (69) effortlessly took their team over the line.

Jagadeesha Suchith was the pick of their bowling as he returned with a tidy 10-2-27-3 as Bihar were restricted to 217/7 after Karnataka