Left-arm spinner Manimaran Siddharth took four wickets for 20 runs to help Tamil Nadu beat Baroda by seven wickets in the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.
This is Tamil Nadu’s second title after the first one came in the inaugural season of the tournament, back in 2006-07.
Siddharth removed Baroda's top-scorer and skipper Kedar Devdhar early when the total was just 22. He then ran through the middle-order, getting rid of wicket-keeper Smit Patel, Abhimanyu Rajput and hard-hitter Karthik Kakade to leave Baroda reeling at 36 for six.
"I wanted to keep it simple. It paid off for me. I am really happy. My aim was to do well for my team. I have been working hard with my variations. The arm-ball has been my strength," said Siddharth after the match.
Baroda found it hard to recover from there and although Vishnu Solanki (49 off 55 balls) and Atit Sheth (29 off 30 balls) added 58 for the seventh wicket, they could muster only 120 for nine in 20 overs.
In reply, Tamil Nadu lost Narayan Jagadeesan early but Baba Aparajith (29 off 35 balls) and opener Hari Nishanth (35 off 38) added 41 for the second wicket to set their side on path to victory.
Skipper Dinesh Karthik scored 22 off 16 balls while hard-hitter Shahrukh Khan scored 18 off seven balls to complete the formalities as Tamil Nadu won with seven wickets and two overs to spare.
Captain DK Leading The Way
This is the second time Dinesh Karthik has led the team to the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament title, having led them to a win in the inaugural season in 2006-07.
Tamil Nadu had beaten Punjab in the 2006-07 final and in fact reached the final last year as well where they lost the final to Karnataka.
Karthik, now the senior statesman, says he wants to take Tamil Nadu cricket forward and develop talent while still hoping to play for India again.
“You understand your cricket over a period of time, I am very keen on taking our state cricket forward and playing for the country is always on my mind,” he said after the match.
Karthik said last year's loss in the final hurt but to see players from that squad make the Indian team makes him proud.
"It really hurt us last year. We played really good cricket and we have been pretty consistent throughout. Just the fact that there are players like Natarajan and Washington Sundar in the Indian team... those guys were around last year playing this tournament for us. Just to see those guys go there... I am sure there'll be few more going from here," he added.
"There have been so many good performances through the season. We are able to produce cricketers to play for the country, that's always a sign of a team doing well," he added.
(With inputs from IANS)
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