Nair, Vidarbha still unbeaten

Nagpur: Four matches, three centuries and still unbeaten in the tournament — Vidarbha skipper Karun Nair is having a dream run. The professional led his team to yet another convincing win, this time over Tamil Nadu in the fourth match of Vijay Hazare Trophy at Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.

Nair, who kicked off his Vijay Hazare campaign with a stellar 112* against Jammu and Kashmir, topped it with an unbeaten 44 against Chhattisgarh and a mammoth 163* against Chandigarh in the last match. On Tuesday, chasing 256, Nair knocked off 111* off just 103 balls, decorating it with 14 fours and a six, to steer Vidarbha home with more than six overs to spare.

He got good support from his fellow batters — Dhruv Shorey (31), Yash Kadam (31) and Jitesh Sharma (23) — before forging a 75-run stand with Shubham Dubey (39*) for the fifth wicket in 67 balls. Dubey remained unbeaten on 39 off 33 balls with three fours and a six.

Though Nair continued to stamp his authority in the tournament, it was seamer Darshan Nalkande who shone earlier in the day with a terrific career-best 6 for 55 to ensure Tamil Nadu were bundled out for 256 in just 48.4 overs. Nalkande is only the third Vidarbha bowler after Shrikant Wagh and Abhishek Chourasia to pick up a 6-wicket haul in 50-over domestic cricket.

Electing to field, Harsh Dubey got Vidarbha a breakthrough in the fifth over by picking up wicketkeeper Narayan Jagadeesan. Tushar Raheja and Pradosh Paul thereafter stitched a decent partnership but Nalkande's quick strikes saw the back of both the set batsmen. Tamil Nadu were reeling at 157 for five before Andre Siddarth and Mohamed Ali rescued them. Nalkande was named the player of the match.

BRIEF SCORES

Tamil Nadu 256 in 48.4 overs (Tushar Raheja 75, Andre Siddarth 40, Mohamed Ali 48; Darshan Nalkande 6/55, Harsh Dubey 2/53) lost to Vidarbha 257/4 in 43.4 overs (Dhruv Shorey 31, Karun Nair 111 not out, Yash Kadam 31, Jitesh Sharma 23, Shubham Dubey 39*) by six wickets.