2017 Deodhar Trophy, finals: Tamil Nadu clinch the title after Dinesh Karthik's century

Tamil Nadu continued their good run in List A cricket by beating India B by 43 runs in the finals of the 2017 Deodhar Trophy. This is Tamil Nadu’s second List A title in the last 10 days as they won the 2017 Vijay Hazare Trophy by beating Bengal in the finals. Yet again, it was Dinesh Karthik, who stole the show for Tamil Nadu as the gloveman scored his second century in the finals of a tournament after scoring one in the finals of the Vijay Hazare trophy.

With this win, Tamil Nadu became the first team win the Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Irani Trophy and Deodhar Trophy.

Chasing 304 to win, India B were off to a great start, thanks to their openers Parthiv Patel and Shikhar Dhawan. Parthiv was caught by Ganga Sridhar Raju, who ran back from the square-leg position to complete the catch, for 15. Dhawan and Manish Pandey punished the Tamil Nadu bowlers by dispatching them all over the ground. They put on a 64-run partnership for the third wicket in just seven overs before Dhawan was caught by Washington Sundar off the bowling of Rahil Shah for 45.

Ishank Jaggi followed soon after and India B were in a spot of bother. Pandey and Harpreet Singh Bhatia threatened to take the game away from Tamil Nadu with some sensible batting. India B had a big blow when Manish Pandey, who was batting on 23, was forced to retire hurt. Gurkeerat Mann Singh joined Harpreet in the middle and the duo revived the India B innings. Bhatia was dismissed by M Ashwin for 36 and in the very next over, Axar Patel was dismissed for a duck.

Gurkeerat continued to bat well and in Akshay Karnewar, he found someone who was keeping the scorecard ticking and the same time, scoring the big shots when needed. The Punjab batsman reached his fifty and lost Karnewar against the run of play. Pandey walked out to resume his innings. Tamil Nadu spinners did a fantastic job in keeping the batsmen at bay.

Rahil Shah sealed the game in favour of TN when he dismissed both Gurkeerat and Pandey in the same over. First, it was Gurkeerat, who was caught by Washington for a sublime 64 and Pandey followed him to the pavilion when he was stumped by Dinesh Karthik for 32. Ashok Dinda tried to score some valuable runs and keep his team in the hunt but was just delaying the inevitable as TN dismissed India B for 261 in 46.1.

Karthik reaching his century in style (Video Courtesy: Bagawati Prasad YouTube Channel)

Rahil Shah was the pick of the TN bowlers as he finished with figures of 3/40 while Sai Kishore and M Mohammed chipped in with 2 wickets each.

After choosing to bat first, India B pacer Dhawal Kulkarni made early inroads as he dismissed the top three batsmen inside the first 11 overs. First, it was Kaushik Gandhi, who was caught and bowled by the Mumbai pacer before he sent back M Ashwin, who was promoted to bat at number 3, was dismissed for a second-ball duck.

Ganga Sridhar Raju was caught behind for 13 and it reduced Tamil Nadu to 39/3 in the 11th over. The stars of Tamil Nadu's previous match, N Jagadeesan and Dinesh Karthik joined together at the crease and pulled things back on track for their team. While Jagadeesan was cautious at the start, Karthik took the attack to the opposition bowlers as he launched a counter-attack.

He reached his fifty off just 47 balls and soon after Jagadeesan too crossed the milestone in 55 balls. The 139-run partnership between Karthik and Jagadeesan came to an end when Chama Milind had the latter caught behind for a 62-ball 55. Karthik continued his assault and in the company of skipper Vijay Shankar, he stepped on the accelerator. The wicketkeeper-batsman reached his century off just 76 balls.

When TN looked poised to put on a total in excess of over 340, Karthik and Vijay departed in space of two deliveries and that halted TN's march towards a huge total. Karthik was caught by substitute fielder Shreevats Goswami off the bowling of Axar Patel for a 96-ball 126, a knock that included 14 boundaries and three sixes. Off the very next ball, Ashok Dinda trapped Vijay Shankar in front of the stumps for 21.

Baba Indrajith's unbeaten 31 took Tamil Nadu's total over 31 and the Vijay Hazare champions ended their innings at 303/9 in 50 overs. Dhawal Kulkarni was the pick of the India B bowlers as he finished with figures of 5/39 in his 10 overs.

Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 303/9 in 50 overs (Dinesh Karthik 126, N Jagadeesan 55, Dhawal Kulkarni 5/39) beat India B 260 in 46.1 overs (Gurkeerat Mann 64, Shikhar Dhawan 45, Sai Kishore2/41, Rahil Shah 3/40) by 43 runs.