Tamil Nadu records easy win over Karnataka

S Badrinath and Umashankar Sushil hit superb half-centuries as a clinical Tamil Nadu thrashed Karnataka by seven wickets in the BCCI One-Day Tournament here today.

Electing to field, Tamil Nadu bowlers Rahil Shah and Laxmipathy Balaji dealt lethal blows to bowl out Karnataka for a small total of 168 in 40.3 overs.

Badrinath smashed an unbeaten 81 off 111 balls, while Rahil's 73 off 105 balls helping Tamil Nadu chase down the target with ease in 38.5 overs.

Badrinath's innings was studded with nine boundaries, while Rahil's innings was laced with eight hits to the fence.

Karnataka had actually lost only nine wickets but C Gautam retired hurt after scoring 17 runs and did not return to bat.

Tamil Nadu, however, were pushed on the backfoot early in their chase as they lost Murali Vijay (0) and Baba Apparajith (6) cheaply.

Murali departed in very first over, trapped leg before by host captain Vinay Kumar with scoreboard reading zero. Aparajith lost his wicket after he gave wicketkeeper Robin Uthappa a catch off Vinay.

None of the Karnataka bowlers seemed to create any trouble for Rahil and Badrinath as both of them batted well to take the game away from the hosts. They put up a match-winning 144 runs stand for third wicket.

But just when it seemed the duo would take their home without any further damage, Rahil was trapped leg before off Abrar Kazi.