Aravind four wickets helps Karnataka top South Zone
Karnataka’s pacer Sreenath Aravind’s four-wicket haul set up his team six-wicket win over Goa in Chennai. Karnataka, who has to chase of 121 lost Mayank Agarwal early coasted to triump in the 12th over courtesy an unbeaten 13-ball 32 from Pawan Deshpande. R Vinay Kumar, the captain, who came up himself to open the innings top scored with 34. Karnataka finished with four wins on the bounce after losing their tournament opener to Tamil Nadu.
Eight Goa batsmen got into double digits, but couldn’t convert their starts. Swapnil Asnodkar, who opened the innings, top scored with 34, in which he hit three fours and a six. At one stage, Goa had recovered from an early wobble to move to 80 for 3, before losing two wickets, including that of Asnodkar, in the space of four deliveries to trigger the slide. Aravind aside, J Suchith, Deshpande and K Gowtham picked up one wicket apiece for Karnataka.
Legspinner D Swaroop Kumar picked five wickets as Andhra beat Hyderabad by 11 runs to record their second win of the competition. Hyderabad, who wiped out more than half their target courtesy Tanmay Agarwal’s 32-ball 49, collapsed after the halfway mark of their innings; they slipped from 85 for 2 to 99 for 7, before eventually being bowled out for 129. P Girinath Reddy, the medium pacer, ran through the lower order to finish with 3 for 19.
Andhra, who elected to bat, posted 140 thanks largely to captain Hanuma Vihari, who made 49. Ricky Bhui was the only other batsman to cross 20. Mohammad Siraj, the fast bowler, picked up four wickets to trigger an alarming slide that resulted in Andhra losing their last eight wickets for 37 runs.