On a day when the Tamil Nadu senior team made it to the Ranji knockouts, the under-23 squad advanced to the quarterfinals of the men’s Col. C.K. Nayudu trophy with a dominating innings and 84 runs win over Kerala on Monday.
The key architects of the victory against Kerala were skipper Boopathi Vaishna Kumar (two centuries) and left-arm spinner P. Vignesh. Tamil Nadu has reached the knockout stages after the 2017-18 season (it had then beaten Hyderabad in the quarterfinals and lost to Delhi in the last-four stage, according to cricketarchive).
TN coach R. Prasanna expressed satisfaction after the win. “I am satisfied, but I want the boys to win the trophy. Having such a team and not being able to qualify earlier is not justice to their talent.”
The batting and bowling departments have done well with skipper Boopathi leading from the front.
The ambidextrous R.S. Mokit Hariharan has been the highest run-scorer so far in the tournament (387 runs, two hundreds).
The bowlers made a big impact, especially left-arm spinner P. Vidyuth (38 wickets, six matches).
Big impact
“Our bowlers delivered under pressure. I am happy for Vidyuth whose performance has been standout. He’s also contributing with the bat down the order.” On the goal for the knockouts, R. Prasanna said: “It is very important for me as a coach to win this one.”
