Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy: Karun Nair slams 48-ball century against Tamil Nadu

The fifth day of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy proved to be just as exciting as the previous one and also saw the second century of the tournament. Most of the limelight was stolen by Karnataka’s Karun Nair who hammered a hundred in just 48 balls. His innings came just a day after the right-handed batsman scored 77 runs in 42 balls to help his side in attaining a victory over Hyderabad in a match that was marred by controversies. There were some other noteworthy individual performances as well apart from Nair’s blistering ton.

Nair slams ton: Karnataka’s opening batsman Karun Nair stole the show on Friday as he hammered a century in just 48 balls against Tamil Nadu. In his innings of 111 runs, Nair struck 8 fours and 8 sixes and scored at a strike rate of 213.46. His innings carried more weight with all the other batsmen in the side failing to deliver with the bat. Apart from opening batsman Mayank Agarwal and Gowtham K, no other player reached a double-digit score. Gowtham’s score of 19 was the second highest score from the team after Nair’s hundred.

Nair’s lone battle took Karnataka to a total of 179/9 in 20 overs and set up a tough task ahead of Tamil Nadu to chase. Washington Sundar started strong for his side, scoring a brisk 34 runs in 26 balls, but soon was caught out on a Pravin Dubey’s delivery. Tamil Nadu lost 3 wickets in 10 overs and managed to score just 66 runs.

Yuvraj fails, Mishra shines: In the match between Punjab and Haryana, the Harbhajan Singh-led side struggled against a strong bowling display by Haryana. Punjab got off to a good start with Manan Vohra and Mandeep Singh scoring runs at a fast pace. But a series of quick wickets hampered their run. Yuvraj Singh failed to deliver with the bat as he became a victim to Jayant Yadav after scoring just 8 runs in 16 balls at a strike rate of 50.00.

Star bowler for Haryana was the leg-spinner Amit Mishra who took three crucial wickets of Mandeep Singh, Gurkeerat Mann and Abhishek Gupta, who all started strongly. In his 4 overs, Mishra just gave away 23 runs at an economy rate of 5.75.

Rishabh Pant takes Delhi to an easy win: In the match between Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir, the J&K side struggled against a strong allround performance shown by the Delhi side. Coming into bowl first, Delhi’s Pawan Negi, Pradeep Sangwan and Navdeep Saini restricted their opponents to a low total of 100 for 9 in their 20 overs.

Chasing a low total, Rishabh Pant got off to a flier and went on to hammer a brisk fifty to take his side to an easy victory. The left-handed batsman scored 51 runs in just 33 balls as Delhi register another win in the tournament.

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