Chennai:Ā After two wins, Tamilnadu was defeated for the first time in Syed Mushtaq Trophy 2019 by Uttar Pradesh as the victor chased down 169 with five wickets to spare in Tiruvananthapuram today.
Upendra Yadav was the star for UP as he scored an unbeaten 70 off 41 balls, a knock that contained four boundaries and five sixes.
Having lost to Vidarbha in their first match of the tournament, desperate for a victory, UP’s openers Akshdeep Nath and skipper Samarth Singh started the chase well. Both the batsmen were however dismissed after scoring 25 and 21 respectively. With Rinku Singh getting out in the 14th over, UP were at 100-3, needing 69 off 39 balls. That was when Upendra and Chaubey stuck a valuable partnership and kept the chase live.
With 30 runs needed off the last three overs, 13 runs were scored off T Natarajan’s over and just when TN seems to have lost hold of the proceedings, G Periyaswamy conceded just two runs and also took two wickets. He dismissed Chaubey in the process, who scored 35 off 18 balls, thereby breaking the solid 52 run stand between him and Upendra.
Requiring 17 runs in the final over, Upendra sealed the match with a ball to spare by scoring 20 runs off his willow, hitting three sixes to help UP register their first victory.
Earlier Uttar Pradesh won the toss and sent Tamilnadu to bat first. Dinesh Karthik (61) and Murali Vijay (51) slammed half-centuries and also shared a 75 run partnership for the second-wicket that helped TN score 168 on the board. Mohsin Khan, Kuldeep Yadav and Ankit Rajpoot took two wickets each. UP next plays Tripura tomorrow while Tamilnadu faces off with Manipur of 14 November.