Last ball heartbreak for TN as Karnataka complete white-ball double

After 40 overs of tantalising cricket, Karnataka defended their Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy by the narrowest of margins, a one-run win over rivals Tamil Nadu helping them become the first team to complete the white-ball double - they also won the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy - in a season.

Tamil Nadu, who were outplayed in that 50-overs final at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, seemed destined to clinch their second T20 title (they won the inaugural SMAT in 2006-07) heading into the final four balls of their chase of 181 but allowed the trophy to slip from under their noses. Ravichandran Ashwin hit fours off the first two balls of the K Gowtham's final over to bring the equation down to 5 off 4. Gowtham then switched angles to round the wicket, bowled a dot and gave away a single to swing the equation to a more nervy 4 from 2.

Vijay Shankar (44 off 27), who looked set to cap off a fine innings in Tamil Nadu's win, then found the wrong fielder - Manish Pandey - to pinch a two from and was caught short by a sharp throw from long-on to the keeper's end. Murugan Ashwin could only manage a single off the final ball even with his partner and namesake taking off his pads, sending the Karnataka team into delirium and sinking the other dug out into stunned silence.

Pandey made the big call to have the offie bowl the final over with only 13 to defend. He had thrown the penultimate over to the seamer J Koushik, who gave away 12. That over had followed on from a crucial five-run 18th over from Ronit More, who turned around a seemingly lost cause - 30 from 18 with six wickets in hand - by prising out Baba Aparajith (40 off 25) at a time when Tamil Nadu appeared to be cruising to the title courtesy Aparajith's 71-run stand with Shankar.

It was another violent swing of the proverbial momentum pendulum. Because halfway through the chase of 181, Tamil Nadu seemed headed towards another crushing defeat at the hands of their rivals. Dinesh Karthik had returned to the hut and was followed almost immediately by Washinton Sundar. They were 80 for 4 and a promising start had been undone by the double blow. The staunchest followers of Tamil Nadu cricket could have been left wondering if sombre silence at the end might become the defining soundtrack of yet another sparkling campaign.

It was then then that two childhood friends joined hands. Shankar and Baba Aparajith share a coach and have batted several times together in the Chennai circles. Together they set about picking off nearly a boundary every over. Shankar began his knock with a swept four and then hit Shreyas Gopal over his head for another boundary. Aparajith upped the ante when it seemed he would drop anchor, using the inside out shot over extra cover to great effect. The 16th over, bowled by More, appeared to have decisively turned the game when both batsmen picked a four each either side of third man but unbeknownst to them, there were a couple of further twists in the storyline.

Earlier in the day, Karnataka were forced into taking an atypical route to get to their 180 after Karthik's opening gambit of bowling out R Ashwin against the in-form top-order paid off. It didn't look anything like a masterstroke when KL Rahul launched Ashwin over long-on for a six at the start of the spinner's third over. But the wily operator turned the tables the very next ball by dropping his trajectory and the length and drawing a mis-hit down to the long-on fielder's throat. One brought two as Mayank Agarwal was then undone in the flight and chipped a return catch, promting a Tahir-esque celebratory run from Ashwin.

It was at 39/2 that Pandey walked in to steady the stables. The Karnataka captain had a scratchy beginning, revealing his intentions to step out early and allowing the spinners to tweak their lenghts. It was against Murugan Ashwin that Pandey rediscovered his touch. A six deposited outside the ground and another four down the ground got him going. However, the Padikkal-Pandey combine which yielded 48 quick runs came to a screeching halt when the impressive Washington Sundar dismissed Padikkal for 35. The left-hander, seemingly minfdul of the arm ball that got him in the Vijay Hazare final, played inside the line to an off-spiner and lost his off-stump.

Tamil Nadu, who'd seen their opponents plunder 89 in the first 10 overs, slipped in three quick overs while new batsman Rohan Kadam walked out to bat. They released the pressure when Manimaran Siddarth and Vijay Shankar bowled two profligate overs but T. Natarajan and Murugan Ashwin ensured that despite a well-set Pandey anchoring one end, Karnataka could add only 34 in the final four overs. But Pandey did ensure that Karnataka got to 180, a target that teams batting first had defended 27 out of 30 times in this tournament before the final. Gowtham and Karnataka ensured there was to be no skewing that ratio.

Brief scores: Karnataka 180/5 in 20 overs (Manish Pandey 60*, Rohan Kadam 35; Murugan Ashwin 2-33, Ravichandran Ashwin 2-34) beat Tamil Nadu 179/6 in 20 overs (Vijay Shankar 44, Baba Aparajith 40; Ronit More 2-32) by 1 run.