Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Tamil Nadu defeats Rajasthan by 7 wickets in first semi-final

On Friday, Tamil Nadu defeated Rajasthan by 7 wickets in the first semi-final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and skipper Dinesh Karthik was ecstatic after the win.

He shared a video of the final moments of the match on his Twitter account and wrote the caption ‘One team. One goal! The team marches on to our 2nd successive final. #SyedMushtaqAliT20’.

Tamil Nadu made it to the final of the tournament last year as well, but lost to Karnataka in the final ball.

They will take on the winner of the 2nd semi-final between Punjab and Baroda in Sunday's final in Ahmedabad, and will be hoping to go one step further and clinch their 2nd Syed Mustaq Trophy title.

On Friday, they were led by KB Arun Karthik's unbeaten 89 and managed to reach the 155-run target that was set up by Rajasthan. He hit 3 sixes and 9 boundaries and never let the momentum slip away from Tamil Nadu in a



well-paced chase.

He also stitched together a 89-run stand with his captain Dinesh Karthik after Tamil Nadu were 17/2 with Hari Nishanth and Baba Aparajith dismissed cheaply.

Chennai Super Kings player Narayan Jagadeesan chipped in with a run-a-ball 28 stitching a fifty-run stand with Arun Karthik, before getting dismissed by spinner Ravi Bishnoi.

Earlier in the day, medium pacer M Mohammed shone with the ball for Tamil Nadu as he helped the finalists claw back into the match after a solid start from Rajasthan.

Rajasthan were 120 for 2 in the 13th over but after captain Ashok Menaria fell for a well-paced fifty, they suffered a massive collapse. Rajasthan managed just 34 runs in the last 7 overs, losing 7 wickets in the process.

M Mohammed picked up 4 wickets and conceded just 24 runs in his 4 overs while CSK left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore snared 2 wickets for 16 runs.