Vijay Hazare 3rd Q/F Review: TN crawl past UP to register a semi-final berth

Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla’s final over was a dramatic one as he struck twice in the same over to bring Tamil Nadu from 162/8 to 166/9 while chasing 169. Tamil Nadu needed just 7 runs to win with three wickets in hands. They were breathing easy at this point of time as Ravichandran Ashwin and R. Satish were batting at the crease.

But, birthday boy Piyush Chawla came in the 41st over and nearly turned the game around. He trapped Ashwin off the very first ball of the over. New batsman Aswin Crist managed to drive the second ball for a boundary to narrow the margin of the target. But, Crist edged the third ball, a sharp turning leg break, to the keeper to keep the game afloat for UP and add excitement in the match.

Earlier, Eklavya Dwivedi had won the toss and decided to bat first. Openers Shubham Chaubey and Praveen Kumar could not do anything significant as they were out for single digit scores. The skipper also had a disappointing outing in this important match as he was cleaned bowled by R. Sathish for a duck.

The slump continued as Khan was run out after he fell short while trying to respond to the call for a quick single by Umang Sharma. Sharma also could not stay very long at the crease as he was dismissed by Ashwin in the next over.

UP were 41/5 at this stage. Rinku Singh (60 runs from 97 balls) and Piyush Chawla (29 from 62 balls) saved Uttar Pradesh as the team ended on 168 all out in 48.2. Better bad than worse they must have felt. Things could have been grave for UP if this partnership would have not happened.

Tamil Nadu were no different, in fact, their start was even worse than that of Uttar Pradesh. Dinesh Kartik was the first one to go back after getting out for a duck. Runs dried up totally in the early part of the innings itself. Mukund, Aparajith, and Balaji lined up one after the other to the pavilion after coming in to bat. TN were in a bothersome situation and UP had the upper hand in the match as the scoreboard said 17/4 inside 8 over.

But the middle order batsmen showed resistance. Test opener Murali Vijay and Indrajith Baba then stabilized the innings. Both shared a crucial partnership of 64 runs before Vijay (33 from 49 balls) lost his wicket. Vijay Shankar (22 from 29 balls) and Indrajith joined together for a brief span of time. However, Shankar soon was out and Indrajith also departed two overs later.

This brought R. Sathish (34 from 38 balls) and Skipper Ashwin (7 from 19 balls) in the middle who batted smartly for a 35-run stand to virtually ended the game before Piyush Chawla made everyone slip to the edge of the seat with the eventful final over of his spell.

With this win, Tamil Nadu has now reached the semi-finals and will play Gujarat for a place in final.

Brief scores:

Uttar Pradesh: 168 all out in 48.2 overs (Rinku Singh 63; Balaji 3/32)

Tamil Nadu: 169/9 in 41.3 overs (Indrajith 48; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/25)

Man of the Match: R. Sathish (Tamil Nadu)