Tamil Nadu continued their winning run as they thrashed Bengal by 146 runs in a Elite Group B match in the Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament on Saturday. Sent into bat, Tamil Nadu piled up 295 for 8 in 50 overs, riding on half-centuries from the consistent B Indrajith (64), Dinesh Karthik (87) and J Kousik (50) and then bowled out the opponents for 149 in 39.1 overs for their third consecutive victory. From 22 for 2 and 55 for 3 in the 18th over, the Tamil Nadu batters went on the overdrive with the experienced Karthik leading the charge, first in the company of Indrajith and then Kousik.
Indrajith and Karthik shared a 105-run stand for the fourth wicket before the veteran stumper-batter added 74 runs for the fifth wicket.
The last 13 overs yielded 135 runs as the Tamil Nadu batters went berserk, especially Kousik and M Shahrukh Khan (32 off 12).
In reply, Bengal was never in the hunt and kept losing wickets at regular intervals with medium-pacer R Silambarasan picking up four wickets including that of opener Shreevats Goswami (1).
Meanwhile, Karnataka humbled Mumbai by seven wickets as R Samarth scored a superb, unbeaten 96.
Mumbai's star batter Surya Kumar Yadav could not make much of an impression, falling for 8 to Pravin Dubey (4/29).
In another match, Bengal defeated Pondicherry by five wickets, making heavy weather of chasing a target of 83.
Brief Scores:
Tamil Nadu 295 for 8 in 50 overs (Dinesh Karthik 87, B Indrajith 64) beat Bengal 149 all out in 39.1 overs (Abhisek Das 30, R Silambarasan 4/28) by 146 runs.
Mumbai 208 for 9 in 50 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 61, Armaan Jaffer 43, Hardik Tamore 46, Pravin Dubey 4/29) lost to Karnataka 211 for 3 in 45.3 overs (R Samarth 96 not out, Rohan Kadam 44, Karun Nair 39 not out) by seven wickets.
Pondicherry 82 all out in 26.4 overs (Iqlas Naha 37, Dhruv Patel 3/4, L Meriwala 3/24) lost to Baroda 85 for 5 in 27.1 overs (Sagar P Udeshi 3/14) by five wickets.