The Vijay Shankar led Tamil Nadu team owned India B side in the final of the Deodhar Trophy, to win their second List A tournament on the trot. Defending a target of 304, Tamil Nadu packed the bags of India B on a score of 261, to win the game by 42 runs.

In a race to a big target, India B did not have a good start as they lost the key wicket of Parthiv Patel on 19. Shikhar Dhawan, who have scored a century and a half-century till now, was joined by Manish Pandey in the middle and both shared 64 runs for the second wicket to row the team ahead but this time Dhawan failed to emulate his previous form and fell short by five runs for his 42nd List A half century.

Ishank Jaggi followed Dhawan and Tamil Nadu was on a higher note with India B three down for 84. Once again the moment came when it looked like India B has the game in their bag when Harpreet Singh Bhatia and Gurkeerat Mann shared 81 runs for the fourth wicket but Bhatia’s wicket somehow blurred winning hopes for India B as there were no established batsmen down the order who can really stand up for the team.

The wickets continued to fall and finally, India B was bowled out for 261.

This win couldn’t have been possible if Dinesh Karthik wouldn’t have stood up to the ranks as the senior Tamil Nadu player scored a century, after coming in at a position when his state was reeling at a score of 39/3. Karthik’s century, an innings of 55 from N Jagadeesan and a handy contribution of 31 from Baba Indrajith lower down the order helped Tamil Nadu in successful triumph.

With this win, Tamil Nadu won the second edition of revamped Deodhar Trophy. Dinesh Karthik was adjudged the Man of the Match for his glorious innings of 126 when his team needed an innings like this.

Brief Scores: Tamil Nadu 303/9 (Dinesh Karthik 126, N Jagadeesan 55; Dhawal Kulkarni 5-39, Harpreet Singh Bhatia 1-29) defeat India B (Gurkeerat Mann Singh 64, Shikhar Dhawan 45; Rahil Shah 3-40, R Sai Kishore 2-41) by 42 runs.