Ranji final ends in tie

For the first time in the history of a Ranji Trophy limited-overs summit, the teams ended with scores level. Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, w...

For the first time in the history of a Ranji Trophy limited-overs summit, the teams ended with scores level. Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, who met in the final of the Inter-State One-day knock-out tournament at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday, were declared joint winners.

8216;8216;There8217;ve been many instances of matches being tied in the Ranji Trophy first class and one-day in the past. But it has never happened in the final of a tournament though,8217;8217; confirmed Board statiscian Dinar Gupte talking to The Indian Express from Baroda.

Needing seven runs off the last over for a win, Uttar Pradesh8217;s last wicket pair of Amir Khan and Praveen Gupta scampered through to a single of the fifth ball to level scores. However, Khan, who batted doggedly for his 31 84m, 58b, 1215;4 ran himself out in an attempt to steal a single from Anirudh Srikkanth, who was positioned at mid-off.

8216;8216;It was disheartening,8217;8217; Khan said after the match. 8216;8216;I thought I had made it,8217;8217; the 19-year-old added dejectedly. Khan must8217;ve been dejected for sure, not the UP think-tank though. For, they came back from the dead after being reduced to 182 for 8, thanks to some brilliant Tamil Nadu fielding complimented by some erratic UP batting.

Two crucial partnerships in the death though, enabled UP to bounce back. First, Amir Khan and Shallabh Srivastava added 30 runs for the ninth wicket and later, Khan and Gupta put on 36 for the last wicket before the former was out.

8216;8216;Everyone in the team is capable of batting. I knew if we could hang around in there, we would end up winning. We were not running against time. We had ample overs to pace our innings. That8217;s what kept me going,8217;8217; Khan, a product of Lucknow8217;s Sports Hostel said.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu openers S Vidyut 41: 41b, 7215;4, and Anirudh Srikkanth 30: 37b, 7215;4, got them off to a flying start after skipper Hemang Badani elected to bat first. The duo put on 78 in only 11.4 overs when the former was run out by a direct hit Rudra Pratap Singh.

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TN lost three more wickets quickly to be reduced to 119-4 when Badani, who hit an 89-ball 69 and Hemant Kumar 32 steadied the Tamil Nadu innings with 76-run alliance in 16 overs.

Badani said his team didn8217;t perform to their potential and could8217;ve got a few more runs on the board. 8216;8216;It would8217;ve been different had we scored a bit more. Having said that though, UP played exceedingly well,8217;8217; he said.

Brief scores

Tamil Nadu 248; 48.3 overs S Vidyut 41, Anirudh Srikkanth 30, Hemang Badani 69, Hemant Kumar 32; Jyoti Yadav 3-27, Praveen Kumar 2-41 tied with Uttar Pradesh 248; 50 overs Praveen Kumar 57, Suresh Raina 48, Ravikant Shukla 34, Amir Khan 31; S Vidyut 2-40, Naresh 2-39, Badrinath 2-45.

TIE-UPS
Previous one-day ties in National championships

8226; 1994-95:Assam 164 tied with Bihar 164 East Zone league.

8226; 1996-97: Kerala 210 tied with Tamil Nadu 210-9 South Zone League.

8226; 2002-03: Orissa 206 tied with Bihar 206-8 East Zone league.