Opener Abhinav Mukund’s fine century set up Tamil Nadu’s 47-run victory over Hyderabad in the K.S. Subbaiah Pillai Trophy South Zone limited-overs cricket tournament at the Gymkhana Ground here on Friday.
Batting first, Tamil Nadu amassed 334 for six in 50 overs with Abhinav, who survived (when on 29) when slip fielder T. Suman floored a regulation catch off left-arm medium-pacer Chama Milind in the fourth over of the innings, hitting 11 boundaries and two sixes during his knock.
Baba Aparjith’s impressive knock (66, 74 balls, 4x4, 1x6) and captain R. Sathish’s belligerence (79, 40 balls, 14 x 4) later helped Tamil Nadu post a challenging score on a pitch which became slower as the day progressed.Though medium-pacer Ashish Reddy struck two early blows earlier to reduce Tamil Nadu to 26 for two in eight overs removing Murali Vijay (4) and Yomahesh (4), the other bowlers were found to be wanting in line, length and direction. Only towards the end, Chama Milind came back well to claim three wickets.
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When Hyderabad began the chase, Suman (136, 119 balls, 9x4, 8x6) was in the mood to make amends for his costly fielding lapse.
In the company of Praneet Kumar (68, 51 balls, 10x4, 1x6), Suman put on 125 runs for the fourth wicket which raised hopes of a victory for the home team with the score reading 267 for three in 41 overs at one stage.
But, once Suman mistimed a sweep off left-arm slow bowler Rahil Shah to be caught on the edge of the circle, the host folded up with Tamil Nadu bowlers, led by experienced Lakshmipathy Balaji, M. Mohammed and Yomahesh, came up with a disciplined effort in crunch time to script a 47-run win.
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In another match at NFC, Amogh Desai (124, 137 balls, 14 x 4) helped Goa record a two-wicket win over Kerala.
Mayank Agarwal hit a stroke-filled 162 (132 balls, 22 x 4, 3 x 6) to fashion Karnataka’s 134-run win over Andhra in another match at the AOC Ground.
The scores:
Tamil Nadu 334 for six in 50 overs (Abhinav Mukund 139, Baba Aparjith 66, R. Sathish 79 not out, C.V. Milind three for 71) bt Hyderabad 287 in 47.2 overs (Tirumalasetty Suman 136, Praneet Kumar 68, Lakshmipathy Balaji three for 55).
Kerala 283 for seven in 50 overs (Amit Verma 56, Sachin Baby 100, Raiphi Vincent Gomez 43, Arshad Gadekar five for 74) lost to Goa 287 for eight in 49.1 overs (Amogh Desai 124, Darshan Misal 69, Amit Yadav 37 not out, Basil Thampi six for 51).
Karnataka 330 for seven in 50 overs (Mayank Agarwal 162, Manish Pandey 75, Karun Nair 31, B. Ayyappa four for 43) bt Andhra 196 in 47.2 overs. (Mohd. Kaif 54, Ricky Bhui 34, Siva Kumar 40, A. Mithun four for 18, Udit Patel three for 46).