Karthik stars as Tamil Nadu lifts Vijay Hazare Trophy

Senior pro Dinesh Karthik produced an innings of character before Tamil Nadu’s disciplined bowling effort saw them beat Bengal by 37 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy final at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi.

This was the third time that Tamil Nadu prevailed over Bengal in the 50-over competition, having beaten them in 2008—09 and 2009—10. Tamil Nadu won the tournament in 2002-03 as well and shared the trophy with Uttar Pradesh in 2004-05.

Karthik (112) was the only significant scorer for Tamil Nadu in their total of 217 in 47.2 overs as Mohammed Shami bowled with a lot of fire, taking 4 for 26. Ashok Dinda (3/36) also rattled the top order.

But the Tamil Nadu bowlers showed unbelievable discipline restricting Bengal to 180 on a pitch that didn’t have any demons. Off-spinner Washington Sundar (0/17) didn’t get wickets but kept the Bengal batsmen on tenterhooks in his eight-over spell.

Rahil Shah, Aswin Crist and Mohammed Mohammed all chipped in to defend a small total.

Trying to be extra cautious, Shreevats Goswami (23) consumed a lot of deliveries at the onset increasing the pressure. A poor call led to Abhimanyu Easwaran’s (1) run out.

Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary (32) was bowled by his Tamil Nadu counterpart Vijay Shankar while trying to play across the line. It was a delivery that needed to be played on the front foot but he committed on the backfoot.

Sudeep Chatterjee (58) and Anushtup Majumdar (24) added 65 runs for the fifth wicket for Bengal but a dodgy leg before off left-arm spinner Rahil Shah started another collapse.

Chatterjee then played an atrocious sweep shot, only to get bowled round the legs off left-arm spinner Sai Kishore as Bengal’s hopes ended.

Earlier, Karthik hit 14 boundaries to score more than 50 per cent of Tamil Nadu’s runs despite a good effort by the Bengal bowlers.

The former India wicketkeeper played shots all around the wicket, playing the drives and pulls with equal ease. He lost partners at the other end but never stopped attacking as 91 runs from 20 overs bowled by Amir Gani (0/42 in 10 overs) and Pragyan Ojha (0/49 in 10 overs) proved crucial.