Halfway through the innings — 87 for one after 10 overs — and coasting towards a huge total, Goa decided to abandon ship losing nine wickets for 19 runs in the span of six overs.
The result, a crushing nine-wicket loss to Tamil Nadu as Goa slumped to its third straight defeat in the Syed Mushtaq Ali South Zone T20 tournament at the IC-Guru Nanak College ground here on Tuesday.
Electing to bat, Goa began briskly with a 40-run partnership between skipper Sagun Kamat and Swapnil Asnodkar before Kamat was dismissed. Asnodkar then took charge, hitting a few boundaries as he and Amogh Desai went about building a strong foundation with a 48-run stand.
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Brilliant fielding
A brilliant piece of fielding from Tamil Nadu skipper Vijay Shankar — a direct hit — caught Asnodkar short of the crease at the bowler’s end. This opened the floodgates as Tamil Nadu ran through the Goa line-up with the batsmen showing poor application, throwing the wickets away.
To make matters worse, Goa committed the cardinal sin of not playing its full 20 overs and slipping from 88 for one to 107.
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Keeping things tight
Tamil Nadu spinners M. Ashwin, B. Aparajith and Rahil Shah kept things tight, forcing errors from the batsmen as tried to clear the short boundaries, ending up holing out in the deep.
The spin trio chipped in with two wickets each, while medium-pacer Aswin Crist accounted for the Goa skipper. The spinners were backed up by solid fielding as TN effected three run-outs.
Chasing a modest total, Abhinav Mukund’s purple patch this domestic season continued as came up with an unbeaten 52-ball 68 (six fours and two sixes) to help TN chase down the total in just 13.1 overs.
The thumping victory helped TN repair some damage to its net run-rate after a 72-run loss to Hyderabad on Monday, but it was not enough to go ahead of Karnataka in the table despite being equal on points.
The scores:
Goa 107 in 16.2 overs (Sagun Kamat 26, Swapnil Asnodkar 33, Rahil Shah two for 23, M. Ashwin two for 17, B. Aparajith two for nine) lost to Tamil Nadu 108 for one in 13.1 overs (Abhinav Mukund 68 n.o., N Jagadeesan 19 n.o.). Points: TN 4 (8); Goa 0 (0) .
Hyderabad 126 for eight in 20 overs (S. Badrinath 29, Mehdi Hasan 25, K. Sumanth 46 n.o., Fabid Ahmed three for 19, C.V. Vinod Kumar two for 11) bt Kerala 121 for seven in 20 overs (Vishnu Vinod 37, Jalaj Saxena 34, Sanju Samson 27, Md. Siraj two for 30). Hyderabad 4 (12); Kerala 0 (4) .
Karnataka 177 for eight in 20 overs (Mayank Agarwal 46, Pavan Deshpande 51, D. Swaroop Kumar two for 18, C.H. Stephen two for 40, B. Ayyappa two for 28) bt Andhra 140 for six in 20 overs (G.H. Vihari 55, J. Suchith two for 30). Karnataka 4 (8); Andhra 0 (4) .