With five needed off the last ball of the tournament, Shahrukh Khan hit Prateek Jain for six to help Tamil Nadu retain the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Tamil Nadu beat Karnataka by four wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi.
Shahrukh (33* in 15 balls) walked in the 16th over, after K.C. Cariappa (2-23) got Vijay Shankar (18 in 22 balls) and N. Jagadeesan (41 in 46 balls) off successive balls. Tamil Nadu, 95/4 at that stage, needed 57 in 28 balls. The equation then came down to 16 off the final over, with four wickets in hand.
R. Sai Kishore, Tamil Nadu’s best bowler (3-12) in the final, got a thick outside edge over short third for four off the first ball, bowled by Prateek (1-34). He took a single off the second ball to bring Shahrukh back on strike. The next three balls conceded five, including two wides, before Shahrukh finished things off in style.
Earlier, Karnataka had lost their top three – Rohan Kadam, Manish Pandey and Karun Nair – inside the Powerplay after Shankar won the toss and opted to bat. Abhinav Manohar (46) and BR Sharath (16) revived them from there, adding 55 in 49 balls before the latter fell to Sai Kishore in the 14th over.
Praveen Dubey (33) and J. Suchith (18 in 7) scored quickly in the last six overs to help Karnataka post 151/7, but it was not enough. For Tamil Nadu, M. Ashwin and Sai Kishore were the only bowlers to concede less than eight an over.
Tamil Nadu have now won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy thrice (2006/07, 2020/21 and 2021/22), the most by a side in history. They also avenged their one-run defeat against Karnataka in the final of the 2019/20 edition, in Surat.
Brief Scores: Karnataka 151/7 in 20 overs (Manohar 46; Sai Kishore 3-12) lost to Tamil Nadu 153/6 in 20 overs (Jagadeesan 41; Cariappa 2-23) by 4 wickets with 0 balls to spare. Player of the Match: Shahrukh Khan.