Initially, when they were supposed to go for the big hits, the Kerala batsmen virtually went silent. Later, when they were expected to tighten up the game, the home boys came up with some sloppy fielding. Finally, Tamil Nadu walked away with a two-wicket victory over the host in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy South Zone T20 cricket championship at the Nehru Stadium here on Thursday.
After being put in to bat, Kerala was looking good at 77 for one, with a 48-run stand between Sanju Samson and Sachin Mohan taking the host that far. But the exit of Sachin and Sanju in quick succession — both falling to captain R. Sathish — spelt trouble. The host went into a shell after Sanju’s fall, in the 13th over. There was just one six and no fours after that.
But, despite scoring only 125 for six — Tamil Nadu’s young Aswin Crist who took four wickets on his T20 debut on Wednesday, took three on Thursday — Kerala was in with a chance. For, TN had a wobbly start with the host’s left and right pace combination of Manu Krishnan and Sandeep Warrier bowling impressively. The visitor was struggling at 69 for six in the 13th over.
Sathish and Malolan Rangarajan came up with a 42-run stand after this and, around this time, the mediocre Kerala fielding messed up the fine work done by the bowlers till then. Three catches were dropped, one of which was by Jaffer Jamal near the long on ropes which went for a six, and the home boys were left wincing.
There were plenty of fireworks at the other venue, St. Paul’s College, with T. Suman’s sparkling 93 (61 balls, 11x4, 5x6) and left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha’s four-wicket haul powering Hyderabad to an 82-run win over Andhra.
Earlier, Karnataka, which suffered a humiliating seven-wicket loss to Andhra on Wednesday, got back to winning ways with a four-wicket victory over defending champion Goa at the Nehru Stadium. For Goa, it was its second straight loss.
The scores: Kerala 125 for six in 20 overs (Raiphi Vincent Gomez 27, Sanju Samson 30, Aswin Crist three for 18, R. Sathish two for 20) lost to Tamil Nadu 128 for eight in 19.2 overs (K.H. Gopinath 32, Malolan Rangarajan 27, Manu Krishnan three for 24, Amit Verma two for 20).
Goa 113 for seven in 20 overs (Darshan Misal 41, David Mathias three for 22) lost to Karnataka 114 for six in 18 overs (Mayank Agarwal 36, Karun Nair 30, Kevin D’costa two for 21, Amit Yadav two for 17).
Hyderabad 178 for eight in 20 overs (T. Suman 93, Danny Derek Prince 25, Tanmay Agarwal 30, Ayyappa Bandaru three for 25, Stephen two for 39) bt Andhra 96 for nine in 20 overs (Pragyan Ojha four for 15, Ravi Kiran two for 10).
