LUCKNOW, Nov. 20 -- Spirited Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday faced their first defeat this season in the Men's U23 State A Trophy, going down fighting to Tamil Nadu by 35 runs in an Elite Group D encounter at Jaipur. Chasing a huge target of 374 by Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh scored 339/9 with three batters scoring half centuries, at the KL Saini Stadium. Despite losing on Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh with 16 points in five matches so far, have all hopes to qualify for the knockout as they will be playing their last league match against lowly Tripura (4 points) on Friday. Tamil nadu (16 points in 5 matches) and Karnataka (16 points in 6 matches) are at the first and second position, respectively in the points table right now. Riding high on a sparkling century by skipper Boopathi Vaishna Kumar, Tamil Nadu scored 374/9 at 7.48 in 50 overs while batting first after winning the toss. Kumar's 115-ball 119 was studded with 19 boundaries and four sixes after TN openers VP Amith Satvir (38) and SR Athis (21) stitching together 56 runs for the first wicket. S Mohamed Ali (50, 64b, 1x4, 3x6), RK Jayant (52, 32b, 3x4, 3x6( and Sunny (40, 12b, 1x4, 5x6) also made use of the placid turf quite efficiently. For Uttar Pradesh, pacer Vijay Kumar finished with 4/107, whereas Abdul Rehman bagged 3/75. Prashant Veer and Sameer Rizvi shared two wickets between them. In reply, Uttar Pradesh too were off to a fine start with openers Swastik Chikara (40, 18b, 2x4, 4x6) and Kavya Teotia (73, 72b, 9x4) adding 44 runs for the opening wicket. But there was quick fall of wickets after that as Rituraj Sharma and captain Sameer Rizvi departed in quick succession, scoring nine runs each and Uttar Pradesh were reduced to 96/3. But a 97-run fourth wicket stand between Teotia and Ali Zafir Mohsin (65, 70b, 3x4, 4x6) kept Uttar Pradesh in the hunt. Later, Prashant Veer (68, 50b, 6x4, 3x6) kept the scoreboard ticking at a fast pace, but wickets kept falling on regular intervals at the other end. Keeper-batter Chaitanya Parashar (30, 38b, 2x4) remained unbeaten. S Mohamed Ali remained the most successful bowler for Tamil nadu, bagging 4/50, P Vignesh took 2/61....