Tamil Nadu 217 (Karthik 112, Indrajith 32, Shami 4-26, Dinda 3-36) beat Bengal 180 (Chatterjee 58, Crist 2-23) by 37 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Dinesh Karthik struck his 10th List A century as Tamil Nadu secured the Vijay Hazare title with a 37-run win over Bengal at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. It was Tamil Nadu's fifth one-day title, and their first in seven years since their dual triumph in 2008-09 and 2009-10.
Karthik's 112 helped Tamil Nadu recover to 217 after they were dented by Bengal's fast-bowling duo of Ashok Dinda and Mohammed Shami, who took four wickets in his second match back from knee injury. He hit speeds north of 140kph and also impressed with slower offcutters. Tamil Nadu's bowlers, however, fought back and dismissed Bengal for 180. Seamer Aswin Crist took 2 for 23 and finished as this season's highest wicket-taker with 20 scalps.
The win capped a dominant three weeks for Tamil Nadu, whose 22-run defeat to Maharashtra in a Group B clash in Cuttack was the lone blip. That despite them missing several key players, with regular captain Abhinav Mukund, M Vijay and R Ashwin engaged with the Indian Test team, and their new-ball duo of T Natrajan and K Vignesh having sat out with injuries.
The win hadn't seemed as likely in the early part of TN's innings after they opted to make first use of the surface. Dinda found appreciable movement in the early exchanges and prised out both the TN openers inside seven overs. Shami then trapped B Aparajith lbw, and with Dinda striking a third time, after finding the outside edge of captain Vijay Shankar, TN were reeling at 49 for 4.
Karthik began to rebuild with B Indrajith as the duo stitched 85 for the fifth wicket. It took a run out to end the association after Indrajith copped a blow on the arm off Karthik's drive. Karthik continued to build TN's innings with support from Washington Sundar and Aswin Crist. He frequently pierced the off-side infield and brought up his century with a reverse sweep through point off Aamir Gani's offspin.
Thereafter, TN's innings ended in swift fashion as they lost their last four wickets for 17 runs. Shami produced a double-strike in the 46th over, before the innings ended with Karthik's hit-wicket in Shami's next over. By then, Karthik had taken his season tally to 607 runs - a tournament record and 39 clear of Shreevats Goswami's 568 runs in 2009-10.
Like TN, Bengal's innings was rocked not long after it began. Abhimanyu Easwaran was run out to a direct throw, and with Crist pegging back Agniv Pan's offstump two deliveries later, Bengal were 4 for 2 in five overs. That would become 68 for 4 with Goswami and Manoj Tiwary perishing after getting off to starts. Sudip Chatterjee and Anustp Majumdar briefly stemmed the rot with a 65-run fifth-wicket partnership, but that was it as far as partnerships of note went. Chatterjee was cleaned up for 58, and with the lower order barely offering resistance, Bengal folded in the 46th over.