Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26: Jagadeesan, spinners give Tamil Nadu a big win against Kerala

Kerala batters self-immolated with rash strokes on a challenging surface to lose the must-win Elite Group A match against Tamil Nadu by 77 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy cricket tournament at the ADSA Railway ground in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

Chasing 295, captain Rohan Kunnummal gave Kerala a bright start as he flayed the attack to race to a quick 73 off 45 balls, studded with seven fours and five sixes. However, Rohan holed out to Sonu Yadav at long-on off Sachin Rathi against the run of play. B. Aparajith, who played fluently for his 35, was stumped smartly by N. Jagadeesan off Rathi. Vishnu Vinod (35, 31b, 3×4, 2×6) kept Kerala in the hunt, but he pulled a short ball from Mohamed Ali to Sunny Sandhu at long-on, and the dismissal started the slide. Kerala’s lower-order batters caved in as Tamil Nadu’s spinners maximised the returns from the slow gripping surface.

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Earlier, captain Jagadeesan was in sublime touch and smashed a century (139, 126b, 9×4, 5×6) to set up a challenging target for Kerala. Jagadeesan added 86 runs with S.R. Athish (33) for the first wicket. But it was the fourth-wicket stand of 73 runs from 40 runs with Boopathi Kumar (35, 20b, 2×4, 2×6) that gave impetus to the innings. However, Eden Apple Tom (six for 46) ran through the lower order to restrict Tamil Nadu to 294 for eight.

The law of averages caught up with unbeaten Karnataka, which stumbled to a seven-wicket defeat against Madhya Pradesh.

Karnataka started well, with Mayank Agarwal (49) and Devdutt Padikkal (35) adding 77 for the first wicket. But the crucial run out of Karun Nair (10) by Akshat Raghuwanshi started the collapse as Karnataka slipped from 98 for one to 160 for eight. Vidyadhar Patil’s unbeaten 34 gave respectability to the total.

Openers Yash Dubey (40) and Himanshu Mantri (34) gave Madhya Pradesh a flying start by adding 78 in 12.5 overs for the first wicket. Venkatesh Iyer (65 n.o., 33b, 4×4, 5×6) and Tripuresh Singh (36 n.o., 12b, 3×4, 3×6) biffed 75 runs off 25 balls to usher in the win in 23.2 overs.

Published on Jan 08, 2026