Keeping cool under pressure, Andhra pulled off an exciting last-ball victory over Kerala on the penultimate day of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy South Zone T20 cricket championship here on Saturday.
The four-wicket win did a world of good to Andhra’s title chances as it moved to the top of the league table with three wins from four games and a superior net run-rate. Andhra will now clash with Tamil Nadu, which also has three wins, in the title-decider on Sunday.
Kerala was in the game till the 17th over, but with Naren Reddy lifting leg-spinner Amit Verma for two consecutive sixes in the next over, the match turned dramatically in Andhra’s favour. Amit got Naren’s wicket in the same over when the 20-year-old attempted to go for another big one, but the damage had already been done.
Meanwhile, T. Suman, who failed to get an IPL berth last year after playing for Deccan Chargers, Mumbai Indians and Pune Warriors earlier, sent a reminder to prospective buyers with a sparkling 60-ball century (100, 9x4, 7x6), the first in the South Zone here and the second in the country this year, as Hyderabad defeated Karnataka by 31 runs.
Meanwhile Tamil Nadu, which lost badly to Karnataka on Friday, was back to winning ways with a six-wicket verdict over winless Goa.
The scores (league): Kerala 148 for seven in 20 overs (Sanju Samson 26, Rohan Prem 26, Jaffar Jamal 38 n.o., Stephen two for 41, Ayyappa Bandaru two for 29) lost to Andhra 151 for six in 20 overs (Mohammad Kaif 28, Ricky Bhui 28, Naren Reddy 25, Manu Krishnan two for 21, Amit Verma two for 32).
Hyderabad 162 for five in 20 overs (T. Suman 100, Tanmay Agarwal 29) bt Karnataka 131 for eight in 20 overs (Manish Pandey 30, Shreyas Gopal 39, Ashish Reddy four for 22).
Goa 116 for seven in 20 overs (Swapnil Asnodkar 27, Darshan Misal 32 n.o., R. Sathish three for 17) lost to Tamil Nadu 120 for four in 17.4 overs (B. Aparajith 41, B. Indrajith 42, Darshan Misal two for 24).
