Prasanth Kumar’s hat-trick jolts Karnataka; Kerala beats Goa

March 25, 2015 10:50 pm | Updated 10:50 pm IST - KOCHI:

D.B. Prasanth Kumar.

D.B. Prasanth Kumar.

Part-time bowler D.B. Prasanth Kumar celebrated his first hat-trick as Andhra, which ended at the bottom of the zone last year, shocked the high-flying Karnataka with a seven-wicket victory in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy South Zone T20 cricket championship at the Nehru Stadium here on Wednesday.

Fresh from its Ranji Trophy and Irani Trophy triumphs, one expected Karnataka to put up a strong challenge.

But that was not to be and at one stage, midway through its innings, it looked like Karnataka was offering catching practice to the Andhra players with some meek shots. And in a format that is supposed to be filled with fireworks, not a single six came from their willows.

The team’s new star Karun Nair, who hit a triple century in the recent Ranji Trophy final, and Manish Pandey, the Man-of-the-Match with a century in the Irani Cup only five days ago, could not cross single digits today as the team caved in tamely against an inspired Andhra, led by Mohammad Kaif.

“This is a big surprise, I did not expect anything like this,” said the 23-year-old leg-spinner Prasanth Kumar. He bowled only two overs today and his hat-trick came in the 12th over and Karnataka was stuck at 61 for some time.

Earlier, Sanju V. Samson hit a half-century and spinners Amit Verma and P. Prasanth took three wickets each as Kerala overcame some early hiccups to defeat defending champion Goa by 49 runs in the opening match of the six-team league.

Meanwhile, 20-year-old Chennai medium-pacer Aswin Crist made a memorable T20 debut, with a four-wicket haul, as Tamil Nadu defeated Hyderabad by 36 runs at the St. Paul’s College (Kalamassery), the other venue. Tamil Nadu’s Aniruda Srikanth and Hyderabad’s T. Suman, with half-centuries, also impressed in the match.

The scores: Karnataka 91 in 17.5 overs (Mayank Agarwal 35, David Mathias 25 n.o., D.B. Prasanth Kumar three for 10, Ayyappa Bandaru two for eight, K.V. Sasikanth two for 26) lost to Andhra 94 for three in 17.3 overs (D.B. Prashanth Kumar 29, K.S. Bharat 33, Udit Patel two for 22).

Kerala 155 for seven in 20 overs (Sanju Samson 56, Rohan Prem 26, Sher Bahadur Yadav two for 15) bt Goa 106 in 17.5 overs (P. Prasanth three for 14, Amit Verma three for 14).

Tamil Nadu 186 for five in 20 overs (Anirudha Srikanth 62, K.H. Gopinath 33, Vijay Shankar 34, B. Indrajith 33, C.V. Milind two for 33) bt Hyderabad 150 for nine in 20 overs (T. Suman 82, Aswin Crist four for 26, Sunil Sam two for 26, Antony Dhas two for 28).

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