After a long gap of 14 years, Tamil Nadu regained the title of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 Trophy when the unbeaten Dinesh Karthik-led side outclassed Baroda by seven wickets in the one-sided final at the Sardar Patel Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
On their way to triumph, Tamil Nadu created a history by winning every single match en route to winning their second title.
Interestingly, both the TN titles of Mushtaq Ali Trophy came under the captaincy of India discard Dinesh Karthik. The first title triumph for TN was achieved in 2006-07 season.
In-form TN needed just 18 overs to gun down the modest target of 121. Opener Hari Nishanth smashed 35 runs to set up a comfortable victory. The easy win in the summit clash summed up an extraordinary performance by TN in the tournament.
Put in to bat, Vishnu Solanki (49) and Atit Sheth (29) added 58 runs for the seventh wicket to help Baroda reach 120 for 9. TN spinner M Siddharth, playing in his first match, justified his decision with a four-wicket haul at the cost of just 20 runs. At one stage, Baroda were reeling at 36 for 6 before Solanki and Sheth led a remarkable recovery for their team.
Sonu Yadav, Baba Aparajith and M Mohammed took a wicket each.
Brief scores
Baroda 120 for 9 in 20 overs (Vishnu Solanki 49, Atit Sheth 29, Kedar Devdhar 16, Bhargav Bhatt 12 not out; Manimaran Siddharth 4-20, Baba Aparajith 1-16, M Mohammed 1-16) lost to Tamil Nadu 123 for 3 in 18 overs (C Hari Nishanth 35, Baba Aparajith 29 not out, Dinesh Karthik 22, Shahrukh Khan 18 not out, Narayan Jagadeesan 14; Atit Sheth 1-20, Babashafi Pathan 1-23, Lukman Mariwala 1-34) by 7 wickets.
