TN rides on Shahrukh’s late assault

Finisher Shahrukh Khan’s latest cameo — 66 off 35 balls — floored defending champion Mumbai, which lost to Tamil Nadu by 54 runs, in a Elite Group B match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy cricket tournament at the St. Xavier’s College here on Wednesday.

Shahrukh’s late assault powered Tamil Nadu to an imposing 290 for eight and on a slowing pitch, the spinners choked the Mumbai batters after medium-pacers Sandeep Warrier and Silambarasan scuppered the chase by pricing out openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (five) and Armaan Jaffer (nine) cheaply.

Lone battle

Captain Shams Mulani (75) waged a lone battle but the chase never gathered momentum as Tamil Nadu spinners struck regularly to dismiss Mumbai for 236 in the 47th over.

Earlier, twin strikes by Dhawal Kulkarni in the PowerPlay forced B. Indrajith (45) and Washington Sundar (34) to repair the damage cautiously. After they were dismissed while trying to lift the run-rate, Dinesh Karthik attacked the spinners in the middle overs to give the innings the impetus.

Useful partnership

The stage was then left for Shahrukh to revel and he did in style. However, he lived a charmed life at the start as the Mumbai fielders failed to latch on to two mishits. He punished Mumbai for the lapses and added 88 for the sixth wicket with J. Kousik (32) which proved to be the game-changer.

Meanwhile, Karnataka warmed up for the Thursday southern derby against Tamil Nadu by crushing Pondicherry by 236 runs at the KCA Cricket Stadium.

Asked to bat, Karnataka rode on half-centuries from R. Samarth (95), Manish Pandey (64) and K.V. Sidharth (61) to reach 289 for six. It proved to be a tall order for Pondicherry, which folded up for 53. J. Sucith finished with dream figures of four for three.

At the Sports Hub, Bengal defeated Baroda by 27 runs after defending a target of 231. Baroda lost its way after a promising start as the Bengal bowlers, led by Akashdeep (three for 39), took wickets regularly to enable their side score an important win.