New Delhi [India], November 22 (ANI): Five needed off the last ball and it was Tamil Nadu batsman Shahrukh Khan who came to the party against Karnataka in the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy here at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Monday. Shahrukh's 33-run cameo off 15 balls helped Tamil Nadu win the thriller by four wickets.

New Delhi Nov 21 PTI An upbeat Karnataka stand on the way of Tamil Nadus bid to defend their title in the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 cricket tournament here on Monday in an exciting Southern derbyThe 2021 final will be a repeat of the 2019 Syed Mushtaq Ali summit clash which saw Karnataka edge out Tamil Nadu by one run in a thrillerIn the final of the delayed 2020-21 edition earlier this year Tamil Nadu had defeated Baroda to lay their hands on the coveted trophyCome Monday at the Arun Jaitley stadium Tamil Nadu will be aiming to exact revenge for their 2019 final loss and defend their title while Karnataka would be hoping to win a third SMA titleAnd for that to happen their opener Rohan Kadam would need to come up with another big knock like the one he played in the semi-final against VidarbhaHe and skipper Manish Pandey would be hoping to tame the strong and varied Tamil Nadu attack and give the side a flying startThe team would also be hoping that their middle-order clicks as inconsistency has been an issue Karun Nair has not been among the runs and he would like to make his presence feltThe likes of in-form Abhinav Manohar Aniruddha Joshi and BR Sharath will need to support the top orderHowever Karnataka would worry more about their bowling attack especially the pace unit comprising Vidyadhar Patil 4 wickets so far V Vyshak 7 wkts and M B Darshan 6 wktsIt is a rather inexperienced trio but they have done well under the circumstances and carried the team into the finale They will have their role cut out in the summit clash against a formidable TN batting unitThough Karnataka will miss the experience and guile of K Gowtham 7 wickets owing to his selection for the India A team the spin duo of KC Cariappa 10 wickets and J Suchith 6 wkts will be crucial to the teams prospects and their eight overs could have a bearing on the outcomeTamil Nadu on the other hand have been in good form in the tournament It has been a team performance thus far with different players contributing at various stagesYet a lot would depend on the start provided by the dynamic duo of N Jagadeesan 163 runs 1 fifty and C Hari Nishaanth 177 and how newbie B Sai Sudharsan 173 runs can build on itSkipper Vijay Shankar leads the run-scoring charts for TN with 181 1 fifty 14 boundaries and 8 sixes from five matches He can turn a match around with his batting abilities alone and will look to unleash some big ones to help the team defend the titleAlso the power-hitting of M Shahrukh Khan has come in handy for the team at times and he will be one to watch out if the top-order fails to fireThe team will be sweating over the availability of left-arm pacer T Natarajan who missed the last two matches owing to a niggleHowever Sandeep Warrier and P Saravana Kumar who grabbed a fifer in the semifinal win over Hyderabad have done a good job while the spinners -- R Sai Kishore M Ashwin and R Sanjay Yadav -- have been superb containing the scoring and also picking up wicketsTamil Nadu and Karnataka have been involved in several interesting battles in the past and Mondays finale promises to be another one in that listVijay Shankar and Co will be aware that the teams last win over their opponent in this tournament came in 2017 and they will be keen to set the record straightMatch starts at Noon PTI SSNRB ATK ATK