Murli Vijay struck a breath-taking hundred as Tamil Nadu defeated Meghalaya by 92 runs in their last Group B match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament here Saturday.
However, the win was not enough for Tamil Nadu to make it to the knock-out stage, as they ended on the fourth position in Group B.
Electing to bat first, Tamil Nadu rode on Vijay's 107 off 67 balls to post a massive 213/2 on the board and later restricted Meghalaya to 121/4 at the Lalabhai Contractor stadium here.
Vijay and opener Washington Sundar (53 off 37 balls) laid the foundation for a big score with a 139-run stand for the first wicket.
While Sundar struck five fours and two sixes, Vijay was more aggressive, hitting nine fours and five sixes.
Sundar's fall in the 15thover did not deter Vijay from playing his shots. He got able support from R Vivek (36 not out off 14 balls).
Vijay departed soon after bringing up his hundred, but he had taken Tamil Nadu past the 200-run mark.
All Meghalaya bowlers had an off day in the field.
Meghalaya were never in the hunt while chasing and lost wickets at regular intervals.
Leggie Murugan Ashwin shone with the ball to return with figures of 2-16, while skipper Ravichandran Ashwin and medium-pacer M Mohammed grabbed a wicket each, as they restricted Meghalaya for 121/4.
For Meghalaya, Gurinder Singh top scored with unbeaten 38.
From Group B, Vidarbha with 20 points are at the top and are through to the next round.
Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu had 16 points each, but hosts Gujarat with a better net run rate scraped through to the knock-out stage.
Saurashtra registered a five-wicket win against Goa in their last Group C league game. Saurashtra are already out of contention for a spot in the knock-out stage.
From Group C, Railways and domestic veterans Mumbai have made it to the knock-out stage.
The knock-out stage will commence from March 8, with all the matches to be played in Indore.
Brief Scores: GROUP B: At Surat: At Lalbhai Contractor Stadium: Tamil Nadu 213/2 (Murli Vijay 107, Washington Sundar 53; Akash Kumar 2-39) won against Meghalaya 121/4 (Gurinder Singh 38 not out, Punit Bisht 27; M Ashwin 2-16, R Ashwin 1-24) by 92 runs.
Tamil Nadu 4 points, Meghalaya 0 points.
At Surat: (C B Patel Ground): Gujarat 121/6 (Priyank Panchal 38, Chirag Gandhi 30; Atharva Taide 2-16, Akshay Karnewar 1-17) lost to Vidarbha 122/5 (Faiz Fazal 39 not out, R R Rathod 37 not out; Manish Sharma 2-25) by five wickets.
Vidarbha 4 points, Gujarat 0 points.
At Surat: (Lalbhai Contractor Stadium): Rajasthan 129/8 (Robin Bist 34, M K Lomror 29, Prashant Kumar Singh 3-23) won against Bihar 110/8 (Mahrour 33, Asfahan Khan 18; A V Choudhary 3-16, T M Haq 2-12) by 19 runs.
Rajasthan 4 points, Bihar 0 points.
GROUP C: At Indore: At Holkar Stadium: Railways 149/5 (Prashant Gupta 54, Pratham Singh 28; Sandeep Sharma 1-29, Krishan Alang 1-29) lost to Punjab 152/7 (Mandeep Singh 70 not out, Yuvraj Singh 26; Anureet Singh 3-52, Harsh Tyagi 2-19) by three wickets.
Punjab 4 points, Railways 0 points.
At Indore: (Emerald Heights International School Ground): Madhya Pradesh 164/8 (Abhishek Bhandari 46, Parth Sahani 36, Naman Ojha 26; Ishwar Chaudhary 3-24, Pritam Nirala 2-23) won against Sikkim 114 all out (B B Sharma 24, Milind Kumar 23; Kumar Kartikeya Singh 3-10, Mihir Hirwani 3-24) by 50 runs.
Madhya Pradesh 4 points, Sikkim 0 points.
At Emerald Ground: Goa 99 all out (Vaibhav Govekar 32, Keenan 30; D A Jadeja 2-18, Jaydev Unadkat 2-22) lost to Saurashtra 100/5 (Sheldon Jackson 36, Prerak Mankad 20; Darshan Misal 2-25, Amulya Pandrekar 2-29) by five wickets.
Saurashtra 4 points, Goa 0 points.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
