Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021: Tamil Nadu beat Baroda to become champions

Tamil Nadu completed a clean sweep in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy as they went on to win every match in the T20 tournament. Their domination was apparent in the final against Baroda at the Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad. Dinesh Karthik’s side cruised past the challengers to pick up a victory by seven wickets. Manimaran Siddharth, the left-arm spinner who picked up four wickets, was named the Player of the match.

Tamil Nadu captain Dinesh Karthik won the toss in the mega-final and elected to field first. The team in yellow was off to a great start as they managed to take early wickets against Baroda. M Siddharth was especially lethal with another left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore providing him great company. At one stage, Baroda were reeling at 36/6 thus threatening an early finish. However, it was Vishu Solanki and Atit Sheth who added 58 runs partnership for the 7th wicket to rescue the side. Baroda eventually managed to finish on a score of 129/9 in their 20 overs.

The target was never going to be enough for a batting line up which was in a sterling form. But Baroda still made Tamil Nadu work hard for each and every run. The opening batsman Hari Nishanth was the highest run-getter in the chase with 35 runs from 38 balls. Shahrukh Khan struck a quick-fire 18 off seven balls at number five to secure a handsome victory for Tamil Nadu. The last year’s runner-ups thus clinched the title this time with 12 balls remaining.