Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Dinesh Karthik's 58 powers Tamil Nadu to victory over Vidarbha; Delhi thrash Sikkim by 9 wickets

Thiruvananthapuram: Tamil Nadu thrashed Vidarbha by 113 runs on Sunday in a Group B match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 cricket tournament to advance to the super league stage as the group topper. [caption id=“attachment_7636201” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Getty Images[/caption] Skipper Dinesh Karthik came up with another superb knock 58 to spur the team to 168 for 8 in 20 overs before the bowlers stepped in to rout Vidarbha for 55 in 14.5 to seal a big win. Three teams-Rajasthan, Vidarbha and Kerala-finished with 16 points. Rajasthan had the best net run-rate of 1.938 followed by Vidarbha (0.566) and Kerala (0.503). The top two teams qualify for the super league. Tamil Nadu advanced to the super league to be played in Surat, topping Group B with 20 points from 6 games (5 won, 1 lost). Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 168 for 8 in 20 overs (Dinesh Karthik 58, B Aparajith 33, Vijay Shankar 26, Yash Thakur 3/23) beat Vidarbha 55 all out in 14.5 overs (R Sai Kishore 3/9, Vijay Shankar 3/12). TN: 4 points, Vidarbha: 0. Tripura 69 for 7 in 16 overs (Milind Kumar 22 not out, Joydeep Banik 22, Aniket Choudhary 3/15, Rahul Chahar 2/18) lost to Rajasthan 74 for 1 in 5 overs (Mahipal Lomror 50 not out, Ankit Lamba 21 not out). Rajasthan: 4 points, Tripura: 0. Kerala 119 for 8 in 20 overs (Sanju Samson 38, SRP Saini 2/23, Ankit Rajpoot 2/24) beat Uttar Pradesh 42 for 4 in 7 overs (Akshdeep Nath 30 not out) by 1 run via VJD method. Kerala; 4 points, UP: 0. Dagar, Dalal star as Delhi beat Sikkim by 9 wickets Leg-spinner Karan Dagar starred with the ball before opener Hiten Dalal scored a blistering half-century as Delhi registered an emphatic nine-wicket win over Sikkim in a Syed Mushtaq Ali encounter. Dagar (4/12) and medium-pacer Simarjeet Singh (2/17) restricted Sikkim to a paltry 88 for seven in the stipulated 20 overs before Dalal played an unbeaten innings of 54 off 24 balls to take Delhi home with 11 overs to spare.

The win helped Delhi move to the second spot in Group E with 18 points from seven games, while Jharkhand were atop the standings with 22 points from as seven matches.

In another Group E encounter, Utkarsh Singh (42) and Virat Singh (56) guided Jharkhand to a nine-wicket win over Gujarat. Brief Scores: Sikkim 88 for 7 in 20 overs (Iqbal Abdulla 37; Karan Dagar 4/12) lost to Delhi (Hiten Dalal 54 not out; Yashpal Singh 1/16 ) by 9 wickets. Gujarat 128 for 7 in 20 overs (Urvil Patel 47; Varun Aaron 2/26) lost to Jharkhand 131 for 1 in 18 overs (Virat Singh 56 not out; Arazan Nagwaswalla 1/25) by 9 wickets. Odisha 149 for 9 in 20 overs ( Subhranshu Senapati 42; Imliwati Lemtur 2/20) beat Nagaland 104 all out in 17 overs ( Yogesh Takawale 31; Pappu Roy 3/21) by 45 runs. Saurashtra 149 for 7 in 20 Overs (Sheldon Jackson 55; Aquib Nabi (4/43) lost to Jammu & Kashmir 155 for 4 in 19.2 overs ( Parvez Rasool 59 not out; Chetan Sakariya 2/34) by 6 wickets.