Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Tamil Nadu trounce Odisha

After making mincemeat of a lower-ranked Sikkim in their opening tie, Odisha stumbled upon a tougher opponent in their second match of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy cricket tournament.

Abhishek Raut-led guys were outplayed by Tamil Nadu by five wickets in the Elite Group-E T20 encounter in Lucknow on Wednesday.

Opting to bat first, Odisha scored a challenging 141 for the loss of three wickets in the stipulated 20 overs with Subhranshu Senapati (65, 53b, 4x4, 3x6) emerging as the top scorer. He was ably supported by Anshuman Rath (51, 40b, 6x4, 1x6). Following the early wicket of opener Aasirwad Swain (2), both Subhranshu and Anshuman steadied Odisha ship with a useful partnership of 97 runs between them. However, both departed in quick succession and after that Odisha battlers couldn’t accelerate the scoring rate. T Natrajan (2/32) was the wrecker-in-chief for Tamil Nadu.

In reply, skipper Baba Aparajith (63 no, 42b, 7x4) led the run chase for Tamil Nadu after a fine start from opener N Jagadeesan (35, 29b, 3x4, 1x6). Tamil Nadu knocked off the target with 1.1 overs to spare and five wickets in hand. Mushtaq Beg (2/25) and Sameer Mohanty (2/7) bowled well, but didn’t get any support from other bowlers.

Brief scores: Odisha 141/3 (Subhranshu Senapati 65, Anshuman Rath; T Natrajan 2/32) lost to Tamil Nadu 143/5 (Baba Aparajith 63 no, N Jagadeesan 35; and Sameer Mohanty 2/7) by five wickets.