Tomar, Shekhawat shine as Rajasthan stun TN to enter quarters

Jaipur: It was an embarrassing first spell for Aman Shekhawat where he conceded 29 runs in the second over of the innings. The figures read - 4 (wide),4,4,4,4,4,4. The 22-year-old seamer redeemed himself later in the game, recording match-winning figures of 8.1-0-60-3 that helped Rajasthan edge past Tamil Nadu by 19 runs in the pre-quarterfinal of the Vijay Hazare Trophy at Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara on Thursday.
Rajasthan will play Vidarbha in the quarterfinal scheduled for January 12 in Vadodara.
In the absence of seamers Deepak Chahar and Kamlesh Nagarkoti, who missed the fixture because of injuries, youngster Shekhawat stepped up in the crunch situation.
Tamil Nadu looked steady in their chase of 267 with opener Narayan Jagadeesan scoring 65 off 52 balls, but after his dismissal things went awry. Soon they were reduced to 192/6 in 36.4 overs and the onus to take things forward landed on veteran Vijay Shankar. The 33-year-old was at 49 (off 69 balls) when Tamil Nadu needed 32 more runs in 30 balls. It was at that crucial juncture, Shekhawat clean bowled him, leaving Tamil Nadu rattled.
Earlier, made to bat first, Abhijeet Tomar brought his fourth List A century and anchored the innings with a stroke-filled 111 off 125 balls that was studded with 4 sixes and 12 fours. Giving him company was captain Mahipal Lomror, who played a crucial hand, scoring 49-ball 60.
Though Tomar took his time to adjust to the early morning wicket, Lomror was quick off the blocks. It was mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy who applied brakes on Rajasthan's scoring with a well-deserved five-for, 9-0-52-5.
Deepak Hooda again failed to deliver. After Lomror's dismissal in the 32nd over, Rajasthan tripped from 184/2 to all out in 47.3 overs.
Brief scores: Rajasthan 267 all out in 47.3 overs (Abhijeet Tomar 111, Mahipal Lomror 60, Kartik Sharma 35, Samarpit Joshi 15; Varun Chakravarthy 5-52, Sandeep Warrier 2-38, Sai Kishore 2-49) beat Tamil Nadu 248 all out in 47.1 overs (Narayan Jagadeesan 65, Vijay Shankar 49, Baba Indrajith 37, Mohamed Ali 34; Aman Shekhawat 3-60, Aniket Choudhary 2-40, Ajay Singh Kukna 2-59, Khaleel Ahmed 1-51) by 19 runs.
Player-of-the-match: Abhijeet Tomar.