Staring at a target of 311, the host struggled to get going after losing opener N Jagadeesan for only a run in the second over bowled by Harshal Patel.

The first four of TN’s innings came in the sixth over struck by Murali Vijay off Patel. The in-form Abhinav Mukund soon hit two fours off Arun Chaprana and Patel as TN crossed the 50-run mark in the 11th over.

Vijay was soon dismissed by Chaprana who varied his pace nicely and it took a good running catch from Jayant Yadav to curtail Vijay’s promising knock at 24 (27b, 2x4).

The second wicket stand between Vijay and Abhinav yielded 44 runs off 55 balls. Things got tougher for the host with the introduction of spin through Jayant Yadav in the 12th over.

In his very first over, the off-spinner castled B Indrajith for zero. That was a body blow for TN as Indrajith has been in good touch in this tournament.

Earlier, TN made two changes bringing in southpaw B Anirudh for B Aparajith and rookie pacer S Sharun Kumar came in for V Athisayaraj Davidson. Abhinav tried to steady the ship in the company of skipper Vijay Shankar and the duo added 59 runs off 66 balls for the fourth wicket.

Abhinav hit the first six off TN’s innings in the 20th over off Jayant Yadav over the square-leg region. 

TN was scoring at five an over and crossed the 100-run mark in the 21st over.

Just when it looked like the duo was looking good, Abhinav was involved in a mix-up with Vijay Shankar and was run out despite making a full-length dive.

He fell three short of his fifty and his knock consisted of two fours and one six. 

That wicket led to another as M Washington Sundar was stumped off Jayant Yadav for zero. With the score at a precarious 113 for five in the 25th over and with not much batting to follow, it became clear that the host would fall well short of the target. The last recognized pair of Vijay Shankar and Anirudh tried to repair the damage by adding 42 runs off 68 balls but the moment Vijay Shankar got out for 44 to Amit Mishra, it was curtains for TN.

Brief scores: Haryana 310 for five in 50 overs (Nitin Saini 40, Himanshu Rana 89*, Rahul Tewatia 91*) beat Tamil Nadu 233 for nine in 50 overs (Abhinav Mukund 47, Vijay Shankar 44, B Anirudh Sitaram 33, M Mohammed 36, CV Varun 32)

Tripura 209 in 49.1 overs (Bishal Ghosh 100, Abu Nechim Ahmed 3/35) lost to Assam 211 for two in 44.1 overs (Riyan Parag 82, Rishav Das 87*) 

Services 139 in 41.1 overs (Ravi Chauhan 47, Rahul Chahar 5/29) lost to Team Rajasthan 140 for three in 43 overs (Manendra Singh 83*)