IN A high-scoring thriller, Vidarbha edged past Tamil Nadu by three wickets on last ball in their Men’s Under-23 State A Trophy at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium Ground C in Rajkot, on Monday. TN piled 345-4 in 50 overs but Vidarbha’s positive attitude gave the team a morale boosting win on the last ball with three wickets in hand. The chase was brilliantly anchored by number three Aman Mokhade (145; 114b, 13x4, 4x6) and opener Prerit Agrawal (74; 69b, 9x4, 1x6) who stitched an important run a ball second wicket partnership of 68.

 

This was after Agrawal had dominated the opening stand of 62 that came from 61 balls with partner Vedant Jajoo contributing 12 from 24 balls. After Agrawal’s departure, Mokhade found an able ally in Mandar Mahale (36; 47b, 1x6), who joined the team after making his debut for senior side in the Syed Mushtaq T20 Trophy. Mahale played intelligent cricket rotating the strike giving the aggressive partner more strike. Mokhade also shared a fruitful alliance with Jagjot Singh (32; 16b, 5x4, 1x6) whose tonked the ball mercilessly to bring down the required rate. In the end, Tejas Soni (15*; 9b, 2x4) and skipper Aniket Pande (4*; 6b) saw the team cross line on last ball.

 

Earlier, put into bat, TN’s openers Tushar Raheja (135; 129b, 12x4, 5x6) and R Vimal Kumar (143; 141b, 12x4, 4x4) had blasted Vidarbha bowlers all over the park adding 275 in 43.3 overs. Tejas Soni and Rahul Dongarwar shared the wickets to fall taking two each. In the eight-team Group B, Vidarbha are second behind Chandigarh with 8 points from two wins from as many games.