CHENNAI: KTA Madhava Prasad’s patient 42 and a valuable 27 not out by C Andre Siddarth came in handy for Tamil Nadu U23 to beat Rest of India U23 by six wickets at the MA Chidambaram stadium here on Sunday. Set a target of 149 in 46 overs, Tamil Nadu achieved the same without fuss. Having already conceded the first innings lead, RoI tried to push for a win thanks to a double century from Angkrish Raghuvanshi, but that was not enough. U Bhagwandas Rao, secretary, TNCA and R Rangarajan, treasurer, TNCA, presented the trophy and medals to the winners and runner-up.
The Tamil Nadu skipper was delighted at his team’s win, but revealed that his players played sensibly and explained that the match could have gone either way. “What I told my boys was just play normal cricket, because we had around 45 overs and 150 runs to score, where it could have gone both ways, where if we had lost wickets, we could have lost the match,” said Andre Siddarth. “We batted normally, so that was the main thing to me. The match had a lot of ups and downs. We bowled extremely well in the first innings, we batted well in the first innings. They (RoI) batted extremely well in the second inning. I think it was a very much a complete match. I would just say that it wasn’t a very one-sided dominant match. It was a match where it was anyone’s game,” added the Tamil Nadu batter.
The wicket for the four-day game had something for the bowlers on the first day and then flattened out. “I feel day one, it (wicket) had a little moisture in it. So on that wicket (Day 1) our bowlers bowled extremely well. And after that, it settled down. So most likely, the wicket was very much helpful for the bowlers on the first day, rather than the second, third or fourth day,” insisted Andre Siddarth.
