Sreevats Goswami scored 81

Ahmedabad: Bengal bowlers had one of their worst days in office as Tamil Nadu retained the national one-day championship title for the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

They won the final by 29 runs at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.

For Bengal, it was a hattrick of losing one-day finals. In all, they have lost five national level finals (including two Ranji Trophy) in the last five years.

Opting to bat first on a placid track, the Tamil Nadu batsmen clobbered Ranadeb Bose and Co. to post a mammoth 379 for six in 50 overs. The Bengal batsmen led by Sourav Ganguly (74) and Sreevats Goswami (81) fought hard but finished at 350 for eight in the stipulated overs.

On a wicket where controlled bowling and smart fielding could have restricted the Tamil Nadu batsmen around 340, Bengal bowlers gave away as many as 71 runs during the five batting Powerplay overs. Seasoned pro Ranadeb alone gave away 39 runs in two overs (14 and 25) during that phase.

Save Manoj Tiwary, who saved at least 25 runs on the field including a good catch to dismiss Murali Vijay (103), the Bengal fielders were sloppy to say the least.

It was Aniruddha Srikkanth who started off attacking Ashok Dinda (1/72 from 10 overs) straightaway. Vijay, who made a quiet start at the other end, started playing his shots once Srikkanth was castled by a Saumya Pakre’s arm-ball.

Vijay was joined by in-form batsman Abhinav Mukund (75) and the pair added 120 runs in only 18.1 overs before the India batsman miscued a lofted shot to be caught at mid-off by Tiwary off Pakre’s bowling.

The mayhem however didn’t stop as skipper Dinesh Karthik (88, 47 balls, 11x4, 3x6) starting carting the bowlers all over the park. Sourasish Lahiri (0/39 in 7 overs) was the only one who didn’t get a severe punishment.

Skipper Shukla, who picked up two wickets, went for 77 in his quota of 10 overs.

Chasing a target of 380 was always difficult, but Sreevats who has been in brilliant form along with Sourav took the attack back to the opposition camp.

Sreevats hit 10 boundaries and two sixes in his 84-ball knock. He finished the tournament as the top scorer with a total of 568 runs.

Sourav, on the other hand, looked at ease against both pace and spin as he repeatedly bisected the off-side field.

However, their 120-run second wicket partnership perished when part-timer S. badrinath fired one wide and Sourav’s flat hit over long-off was smartly caught by Rajagopal Sathish.

Soon after that Sreevats departed, caught at backward point to the same fielder of Yo Mahesh’s bowling. Bengal’s chase went off track after his dismissal.

(Agencies)