It was virtually a no-contest as Tamil Nadu notched up an easy nine-wicket win over Manipur in a Group B match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Twenty20 tournament at the Kariyavattom Sports Hub on Thursday.
In more ways than one, it was the perfect recoil for the winning side, which surprisingly had surrendered to Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday and was thus left to regroup itself.
That it just did and left the North-Eastern side scurrying for cover would be an understatement. Such was the dominance of Tamil Nadu that its third win in four matches finally took the shape of a mere formality.
Choosing to field first after winning the spin of the coin, Tamil Nadu never allowed the Manipur batsmen to settle down. None of them was able to get into double figures before being shot out for a paltry 55 in 18.4 overs, with T. Natarajan and M. Ashwin running through the Manipur innings returning figures of three for seven and three for eight respectively.
This after R. Sai Kishore had struck twice early on and Washington Sundar bowled out his quota of four overs quite impressively, conceding just 13 runs.
Great start
Left with an easy chase, Tamil Nadu was given a great start by M. Vijay who went after the Manipur bowling, scoring 33 of the 34 that the side made in the first two overs.
Vijay was run out at the same individual score, going for a non-existent single but Washington and Mohammed Saleem helped Tamil Nadu reach the measly target in 4.1 overs.
The scores:
Manipur 55 in 18.4 overs (T. Natarajan 3/7, M. Ashwin 3/8) lost to Tamil Nadu 58/1 in 4.1 overs (M. Vijay 33).
