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Shahrukh Khan
Tamil Nadu defeated Himachal Pradesh by five wickets to seal their semi-final spot in the second quarter-final. Baba Aparajith and Shahrukh Khan played unbeaten knocks of 52 and 40 respectively at the Motera Stadium. Tamil Nadu is now going to play against Bihar or Rajasthan in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy's first semi-final on Friday.
The Dinesh Karthik-led team had won all of their five matches in the group stage. On the other hand, the Rishi Dhawan-led side had lost just once in their group against the table-toppers Baroda. Punjab have also clinched their spot in the semi-finals with a nine-wicket victory over defending champions Karnataka.
Chasing a target of 136, Tamil Nadu lost early wickets in the form of N Jagadeeshan (7), Hari Nishanth (17), and Arun Karthik (0). All the top-order batsmen were clean bowled by Vaibhav Arora, which reduced the side to 25/3 in the fourth. However, Sonu Yadav and Aparajith then regained the match for Tamil Nadu as they put a partnership of 35 runs. As soon as the things were getting better for Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh got the breakthrough of Yadav at 16. With his dismissal, Tamil Nadu were still 76 runs away from the target.
Shahrukh Khan and Aparajith forced the game back in Tamil Nadu’s direction
Once again, captain Dinesh Karthik disappointed everyone as he was just able to score two runs. Tamil Nadu was then left struggling at 66 for five wickets in the 13th over. After Dinesh Karthik's dismissal, Baba Aparajith handled the situation and changed the tempo of his innings. The batsman troubled Himachal Pradesh bowlers. Aparajith and Shahrukh Khan formed an unbeaten partnership of 75 runs off just 32 balls to win the side's match. The duo took Tamil Nadu over the line by five wickets with 13 balls to spare.
Himachal Pradesh had a disappointing start as they lost their opening batsman Prashant Chopra in the fourth over. Baba Aparajith then dismissed Rana in the seventh over. Sonu Yadav also took a three-wicket haul and restricted Himachal Pradesh to 135/9 in the allotted twenty overs. Tamil Nadu's bowling unit was able to gain control on the run-flow. On the contrary, Himachal Pradesh captain Rishi Dhawan played a brilliant knock of 35 runs and helped the side to post a decent total of 130 runs in the twenty overs.