Karnataka bow out in semifinal

Tamil Nadu demolish Madhya Pradesh to set up Bengal final

In a replay of last year’s final, Bengal will take on Tamil Nadu in the summit clash at Ahmedabad on Monday.

Bengal successfully chased Karnataka’s target of 230 for nine in 50 overs, losing six wickets in 49 overs.

Tiwary’s effort came after a solid platform laid by the openers, Shreevats Goswami and Arindam Das, who put up 118 runs.

The game had been billed as a clash between Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, but neither of the former India captains had much of an impact on the outcome.

Earlier, Karnataka's top-order batsmen flopped after they were sent in, and it was only a battling 93-run partnership between CM Gautam and S Aravind that lifted them from the depths of 130 for 8 to a moderate total. The experiment to play Vinay Kumar at No 3 worked as he scored 43. Dravid struck a composed 29 off 48 balls before he was caught behind off debutant off-spinner Soumya Pakre. The dismissal saw a mini collapse as Karnataka lost five wickets for just 29 runs during that period.

It was then left to Gautam and Aravind to revive Karnataka. Bengal's chase had its shakiest period when four wickets went down for 24 runs after the openers had put on a big stand. Tiwary and Wriddhiman Saha, though, put Bengal back on top with a 74-run association, and the target was overhauled with an over to spare.

TN win big

In Rajkot, riding on captain Abhinav Mukund’s 130, defending champions Tamil Nadu beat Madhya Pradesh by 134 runs to storm into the final.

Opting to bat first, Tamil Nadu piled up a huge 348 for five, thanks to Mukund’s 137-ball innings during which he struck 12 fours and a six at the Madhavrao Scindia ground.
Pacer Rajagopal Sathish then scalped four wickets for 16 runs as MP were bundled out for 214 in 43.1 overs.

Mukund took 107 balls to reach three-digit mark, while Badrinath completed his fifty off just 36 balls with the help of six fours and one six.

Score Board

KARNATAKA: Ganesh Satish c&b Dinda 14, Robin Uthappa c Shukla b Dinda 15, R Vinay Kumar lbw  Pakre 43, Manish Pandey b Bose 2, Rahul Dravid c Saha b Pakre 29, Amit Verma lbw Shukla 1, CM Gautam c A Das b Shukla 72, Raju Bhatkal lbw Lahiri 4, Udit Patel (run out) 0, S Arvind (not out) 38, KP Appanna (not out) 0. Extras (W-12) 12. Total (for 9 wkts, 50 overs) 230.

Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-56, 3-59, 4-101, 5-102, 6-120, 7-129, 8-130, 9-223.
Bowling: Ranadeb Bose 9-0-50-1, Ashok Dinda 10-0-50-2, Lakshmi Ratan Shukla 9-1-52-2, Saumya Pakre 10-0-34-2, Sourav Ganguly 1-0-5-0, Sourashish Lahiri 7-0-23-1, Abhshek Jhunjhunwala 4-0-16-0.

BENGAL: Arindam Das b Patel 59, Shreevats Goswami st Gautam b Patel 45, Manoj Tiwari (not out) 61 Sourav Ganguly c Pandey b Appanna 5, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala lbw Verma 6, Wriddhiman Saha (run out) Vinay, Lakshmi Ratan Shukla c Vinay b Verma 0, Sourashish Lahiri (not out) 7. Extras: (LB-5, W-7) 12. Total (for 6 wkts, 49 overs) 231.
Fall of wickets: 1-111, 2-116, 3-123, 4-135, 5-209, 6-209.

Bowling: R VinayKumar 6-0-45-0, S Arvind 10-0-43-0, Udit Patel 10-0-33-2, Raju Bhatkal 2-0-21-0, KP Appanna 10-1-32-1, Amit Verma 9-0-45-2, Ganesh Satish 1-0-7-0.

At Rajkot: Tamil Nadu: 348/5 in 50 overs (S Anirudha 76, Abhinav Mukund 130, Subramaniam Badrinath 58, Rajagopal Sathish 39, Kuthethurshri Vasudevadas 30; Amarjeet Singh 3-60) bt Madhya Pradesh: 214 all out in43.1 overs (Naman Ojha 31, Monish Mishra 41, Harpreet S 26, Anand S 43, Shadab K 27; Yo Mahesh 3-49, Suresh Kumar 2-19, Rajagopal Sathish 4-16).