Tamil Nadu today sailed into the semifinals of Ranji Trophy cricket tournament by virtue of their 144-run first innings lead over Vidarbha in the quarterfinal match which ended in a draw at Sawai Man Singh Stadium here.
Vidarbha, who were totally outplayed by Tamil Nadu, were left with a nearly impossible victory target of 411 runs on the final day of the match. They were reeling at 142 for 8 in their second essay when umpires called off the match after taking consent of both the captains.
It was a mere formality for Tamil Nadu to seal their berth in the semifinals as they were already assured of a place in the last four after they made a solid 403 in first innings and then bundled out Vidarbha for 259 to snatch a 144-run first innings lead which proved to be decisive in the end.
Tamil Nadu resumed at their overnight score of 193 for six but Swapnil Bandiwar (3/42), Ravikumar Thakur (2/62) and Rakesh Dhurv (2/88) restricted them to 266 all out.
Vidarbha were left with a nearly impossible target of 411 runs and were staring at outright defeat when they lost four wickets, including that of skipper S Badrinath (0), for 68. But, unbeaten half century by Ganesh Satish (59 not out; 131 balls, 6x4) and useful knocks by Shalabh Shrivastava (33) and Dhurv (22) saved them the blushes. They averted an outright defeat by reaching 142 for 8 when the match was called off.
For Tamil Nadu, Baba Aparajith (3/41) was the most successful bowler while Prasanth Parmeshwaran (2/26), L Balaji (1/21) and Malolan Rangarajan (1/25) were the other wicket takers.
Brief Scores:
Tamil Nadu: 403 & 266 all out in 98.2 overs (Vijay Shankar 82, Dinesh Karthik 64; Swapnil Bandiwar 3/42)
Vidarbha: 259 & 142/8 in 49 overs (Ganesh Satish 59 not out; Baba Aparajith 3/41).
