Rains make Tamil Nadu suffer

Tamil Nadu's chances of qualifying for the knock out semifinals as the second team from Elite Group A dimmed further with rain forcing a tame draw in their penultimate Super League match against Rajasthan in Chennai on Thursday, with both the teams getting one point each.

On the fourth and final day's play at the MA Chidambaram stadium, Tamil Nadu declared their first innings closed at their overnight score of 324 for 4.

Replying, Rajasthan scored 229-6 in 101 overs, helped by two bright knocks by Vineet Saxena (71 off 205 balls) and Robin Bist (79 not out off 175 balls).

Tami Nadu's off spinner S Sureshkumar claimed two wickets for 50 runs, left arm spinner C Suresh 1-50 and off-spinner S Badrinath 1-20.

While the second day's play was washed out completely, the third day's play was also badly truncated due to heavy rains following a depression. The weather cleared on Thursday and a full day's play was possible.

Tamil Nadu, who had 12 points coming into this match, increased their tally to 13 and Rajasthan to four, from three hitherto.

While Tamil Nadu will take on Delhi in their last match in Chennai from December 25, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh will face each other at Dharamsala, in what would be the match to decide relegation from this group to Plate Group for the next season.

Scorecard:
Tamil Nadu (1st innings):
A Mukund c R Jhalani b N Singh 7
M Vijay c & b G Singh 123
S Badrinath c R Jhalani b S Mathur 138
K Srivasudeva Das c R Jhalani b S Mathur 1
R Srinivasan batting 30
S Sureshkumar batting 4
Extras: (B-4, Lb-6, W-3, Nb-8) 21
Total: (for 4 wkts in 90 overs decl) 324

Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-242, 3-244, 4-318

Bowling: S Mathur 22-1-79-2, N Singh 11-0-45-1, S Singh 25-3-97-0, R Bishnoi 2-0-15-0, G Singh 23-4-54-1, NG Gehlot 7-1-24-0. 

Rajasthan (1st innings):
V Saxena c Mukund b Badrinath 71
A Sharma b Kumar 6
R Bishnoi c Vasudevadas b Kumar 16
N Doru (run out) 11
R Bist (not out) 79
N Gehlot c Vasudevadas b Mahesh 18
R Jhalani b Suresh 18
S Singh (not out) 0
Extras: (b-6, lb-3, w-1) 10
Total: (for six wkts in 101 overs) 229

Fall of wickets: 1-26, 2-48, 3-86, 4-141, 5-172, 6-224

Bowling: V Yo Mahesh 14-3-50-1, P Amarnath 13-7-25-0, C Suresh 19-6-22-1, R Ramkumar 28-10-48-0, S Suresh Kumar 17-3-50-2, S Badrinath 6-0-20-1, K Vasudevadas 4-1-5-0