Hemang Badani (69) steadied Tamil Nadu innings

Mumbai: Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu shared the crown after playing out a thrilling last-ball tie in the final of the inter-state all India one-day knock-out meet here on Thursday.

Needing a run off the last ball with one wicket left, UP wicketkeeper batsman Amir Khan was run out at the non-striker?s end off a throw from Anirudh Srikkanth after driving Tamil Nadu bowler Vidyut Sivarmakrishnan to mid-off.

UP needed 11 runs in the last two overs and seven off the last six balls to overtake TN?s score of 248. They drew level off the fifth ball, before Khan was run out for 31 in 58 balls.

It was a fitting finale to a fascinating contest in which fortunes fluctuated rapidly in hot, sweltering conditions. UP recovered from 182 for eight in the 36th over to tie the scores after their last two wickets added 66 runs.

Khan put on 30 runs for the ninth wicket with Salab Srivastava (10 in 17 balls) and 36 runs with last man Praveen Gupta, who remained unbeaten with 17 off 24 balls.

The early momentum to the run-chase was provided by in-form batsman Suresh Raina, who carted Tamil Nadu bowlers all around the park for a quickfire 48 off 33 balls, with the help of nine fours and a six.

Opener Rohit Prakash anchored the chase with a 77-ball 57, while Ravikant Shukla made 34. Earlier, Tamil Nadu suffered a dramatic collapse, losing their last five wickets for 11 runs in 24 balls to slump from a healthy 237 for five to 248 all out in 48.4 overs.

Openers Vidyut (run-a-ball 41), and Anirudh (30 off 37 balls), made a brisk start after captain Hemang Badani won the toss and elected to bat.

The Tamil Nadu duo put on 78 in 11.4 overs, when the former was run out by a direct hit from Rudra Pratap Singh at third man.

TN lost three more wickets quickly to be 119 for four when Badani, who made 69 in 89 balls with five fours, and Hemant Kumar (32) steadied the innings with a partnership of 76 runs in 16 overs.

Hemant departed at 195 and then Badani added another 42 runs with Dinesh Karthik, before becoming one of the seven batsmen in the match and the fourth from Tamil Nadu to be run out.

The initial part of the UP run-chase was sustained by two partnerships worth 57 runs for the second and fifth wickets, involving first Prakash with Raina and then with Shukla.

But from 170 for five, runs were difficult to come by in the face of an accurate spell of left arm slow bowling by TN?s Ram Kumar, who gave away only 34 runs in 10 overs for Srivastava?s wicket.

Effective bowling by Jesuraj, Badrinath and left arm slow Vidyut kept the scoring rate under check and reduced UP to a struggling 182 for eight, before the last two wickets helped them finish joint winners with two resolute stands.

Badani?s ploy of having a deep-set field in a bid to stop the opposition batsmen from hitting boundaries helped the tail-end batsmen survive on singles and twos. (PTI)