An unbeaten 93 by S Badrinath steer Tamil Nadu to an eight-wicket win over Bengal and take his team to the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy on the fourth and final day of the match.

With a first innings lead of 39 and 173 runs to the good overall, Bengal appeared to be slightly better off. But Tamil players bounced back into the game strongly and bundled out Bengal for 187. Tamil Nadu batsman then ransacked the Bengal bowlers and notched up the victory target of 227 by just losing two wickets.

Resuming at the overnight score of 134 for four, Bengal lost its momentum and could piled only 53 runs by losing the remaining six wickets with Tamil Nadu medium pacer L Balaji picking up 6 wickets by just conceding 24 runs. This was Balaji’s 15th five-wicket spell in firstclass cricket.

The star-studded Tamil Nadu batting line-up made a solid start. Opening batsman Abhinav Mukund (31) and M Vijay (73) put on 84 runs partnership for the first wicket in just 18.5 overs.

Vijay piled 12 boundaries and a huge towering six in his 87-ball knock. Then Badrinath hit a superb unbeaten 93 to take Tamil Nadu home in the company of captain Dinesh Karthik (16 not out) who scored the winning boundary. Badrinath’s 116-ball innings included 12 fours and two huge sixes.

Scores in brief:

Bengal: 345 and 187 (L R Shukla 47, Manoj Tiwary 42; Balaji 6/24, R Ashwin 2/93)

Tamil Nadu: 306 and 227/2 (Badrinath 93 not out, M Vijay 73, A Mukund 31; S S Sarkar 1/36, R R Bose 1/50).