A stupendous bowling performance from Tamil Nadu, led by P. Saravana Kumar (5-21), helped them thrash Hyderabad by eight wickets in the first semi-final of the 2021 Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy in Delhi. They bundled out Hyderabad for 90 in 18.3 overs, and chased down the target with 34 balls remaining.
After being asked to bat, Hyderabad lost captain Tanmay Agarwal, the leading run-scorer of the competition, to Saravana in the second over. They never recovered from there. In fact, barring Tanay Thyagarajan (25), none of their batters managed to reach double digits before being bowled out for a paltry total.
M. Ashwin and M. Mohammed were impressive, taking two wickets apiece and also going for under four an over. R. Sai Kishore returned 1-19, while Sandeep Warrier was the only Tamil Nadu bowler who remained wicketless.
Coming to chase, Tamil Nadu lost both Hari Nishaanth and Narayan Jagadeesan in the space of three balls, bowled by Rakshann Readdi (2-23). They were down to 16/2, but Sai Sudharsan (34*) and Vijay Shankar (43*) did not allow Hyderabad any further hope after that. They stitched an unbroken 76 in 70 balls to guide Tamil Nadu storm into the final.
Brief scores: Hyderabad 90 in 18.3 overs (Thyagarajan 25; Saravana 5-21) lost to Tamil Nadu 92/2 in 14.2 overs (Shankar 43*; Rakshann 2-23) by 8 wickets with 34 balls to spare.