Resuming at 275 for five and with Parthiv Patel (130 batting) in great form, Gujarat were eyeing a big total but Lakshmipathi Balaji (4/51) and Aushik Sriniavas (4/75) ran through the lower half as the hosts managed just 68 more runs.
In reply, Tamil Nadu were 198 for two at stumps, riding on Vijay’s unbeaten 91 and KB Arun Karthik’s sparkling 87.
Overnight batsmen Parthiv and Timil Patel (24) guided Gujarat past the 300-mark before Srinivas struck twice in quick succession and then Balaji polished off the tail, besides scalping Parthiv’s prize wicket, to being the curtains down on the Gujarat innings. Parthiv’s 312-ball 166 included 21 hits to the fence.
Tamil Nadu had a rather wobbly start with Ashraf Makda trapping the scoreless Anirudha Srikkanth leg before with his first delivery. Vijay and Karthik then took centrestage, adding 187 for the second wicket as Gujarat toiled for a breakthrough.
Thirteen runs from a deserving century, Karthik was foxed by Niraj Patel and returned stumped, having played a brilliant 112-ball knock that had 11 fours and a six. S Badrinath joined Vijay and the duo ensured there were no more setbacks. Vijay’s unbeaten 143-ball knock came in 200 minutes during which he hit nine fours and a six.
Super League scores: Group A: At Ahmedabad: Gujarat: 343 all out in 116.1 overs (Niraj Patel 36, Parthiv Patel 166, Bhavik Thaker 72; Lakshmipathi Balaji 4-51, C Ganapathy 2-49, R Aushik Srinivas 4-75) vs Tamil Nadu: 198/2 in 45 overs (M Vijay 91 n.o., KB Arun Karthik 87).
At Mohali: Punjab: 221 all out in 76.5 overs and 59/3 in 23 overs (MA Khader 2-17) vs Hyderabad: 193 all out in 62.5 overs (VVS Laxman 26, Syed Quadri 73 n.o.; Harmeet Singh 3-52, Love Ablish 4-70, Manpreet Singh Gony 3-58).
At New Delhi: Railways: 419 all out in 158.3 overs (Faiz Fazal 29, Sanjay Bangar 34, Tejinderpal Singh 102, Yere Goud 58, Sanjib Sanyal 92, Karan Sharma 30 n.o.; Vikramjit Singh Malik 3-57, Sarandeep Singh 7-120) vs Himachal Pradesh: 34/0 in 20 overs.
At Mumbai: Mumbai vs Orissa, second day’s play also washed out.
Group B: At Kolkata: Baroda: 307 all out in 110.3 overs (Connor Williams 30, Jacob Martin 46, Yusuf Pathan 29, Irfan Pathan 43, Pinal Shah 63, Swapnil Singh 43 n.o.; Sourav Sarkar 3-79, Laxmi Ratan Shukla 3-47, Sourashish Lahiri 3-29) vs Bengal: 102/3 in 35.2 overs (Arindam Das 52 n.o.; Irfan Pathan 2-43).
At Rajkot: Uttar Pradesh: 395 all out in 129.4 overs (Shivakant Shukla 119, Parvinder Singh 122, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 30, Amir Khan 25; Sandeep Jobanputra 4-82, Rakesh Dhruv 5-107) vs Saurashtra: 125/3 in 48 overs (Chirag Pathak 31, Sitanshu Kotak 38 n.o., Pratik Mehta 44 n.o.; Rudra Pratap Singh 2-40).
