KER vs TN 1st Quater Final, SMAT 2021 (II)

Vidarbha have beaten Rajasthan in the other quarterfinal to book their semi-final spot. The other two quarterfinals are coming up shortly at 1:00 PM IST. Gujarat vs Hyderabad at Palam Stadium, Bengal vs Karnataka at Arun Jaitley Stadium. Do join us for that one and for all the other cricketing action. It’s me Tushar Garg, along with my co-comms Arijit Kundu and Ninaad Dixit - bidding adieu. Thank you for joining

Earlier, Vishnu Vinod built on his IPL credentials and propelled Kerala to a strong total. Rohan Kunnummal (51 off 43) and Sachin Baby (33 off 32) went along at a steady rate against some disciplined spin bowling by Tamil Nadu spinners. At the end of 13th over, the 27-year old Vishnu entered the scene. From there on, Kerala ran-sacked 90 runs in last 7 overs with Vinod accounting for 65 off just 26 balls. He smashed Tamil Nadu bowlers for 7 sixes and 2 fours. The spin duo of Murugan Ashwin and Sanjay Yadav were the pick of the bowlers. Their combined bowling figures read 8-0-43-3 and had applied brakes on Kerala’s scoring rate, until Vishnu Vinod came into his own element.

And they seal the semi-final spot with a six. Defending champions Tamil Nadu are through to their third consecutive semi-final in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. And they did reach the final on both the previous occasions, making them the team to beat in this competition. Chasing a challenging 182-run target, Hari Nishaanth ensured Tamil Nadu had a good batting powerplay after the early wicket of Jagadeesan. Sai Sudharsan played a vital innings, and in the company of the skipper Vijay Shankar carried the chase forward at a healthy pace. Both the set batters fell before the final end of the innings, causing jitters in the Tamil Nadu camp. Kerala held on to that slight opening and took the game deep into the last over, but significant contributions by Sanjay Yadav and Shahrukh Khan saw the chase through.