Goa recorded a six-wicket win over Tamil Nadu in the fourth round of the South Zone limited-overs cricket tournament for the K.S. Subbaiah Pillai Trophy at the Gymkhana Ground here on Tuesday.
This was Goa’s third win in four games and is the next best to Karnataka which won all the four matches till now.
Put in to bat, Tamil Nadu put up a shoddy batting display in conditions friendly to new ball bowlers because of the early morning moisture. But again, they were up against an attack which at the most was disciplined but not unplayable.
Medium-pacer Buddhadev Mangaldas struck with the fourth ball of the innings when he sent back opener K.H. Gopinath for a duck. Soon, the more experienced Saurabh Bandekar was in the act — trapping opener Abhinav Mukund lbw with one which swung back sharply and then dismissing Baba Aparjith also in similar fashion. Even Robin D’Souza with a three-wicket haul ensured that the pressure was on Tamil Nadu right through.
Tamil Nadu kept losing wickets at regular intervals and at one stage was 77 for five in 21.6 overs. And when left-arm spinner Shadab Jakati had Dinesh Karthik (29) stumped by Keenan Vaaz, it looked as if the team would struggle to score even 100 but the ever-dependable captain R. Sathish came to the rescue.
Sathish thrived on three dropped chances – Bandekar being the victim twice when the fielders made a mess of skiers. He hit 67 off 75 balls (4x4, 1x6) even as wickets continued to fall at the other end. The fact that his knock was the only half-century of the innings was a sad reflection of the lack of discipline by the others.
When Goa began chasing, the pitch eased considerably and Tamil Nadu’s hopes of getting early breakthroughs were blunted by the openers Amogh Desai (68, 73b, 9x4) and Swapnil Asnodkar (77, 87b, 10x4, 2x6) who put on 146 runs for the first wicket in 25.6 overs. Goa romped home in the 34th over.
However, Goa will miss the services of Mangaldas, who had to be rushed to the hospital as he fractured his right shin while fielding in the deep. “He will be out of action for a minimum of 10 weeks,” said Goan coach and former Sri Lankan Test international Nuwan Zoysa.
In other matches, Andhra scored a six-wicket win over Kerala and Tanmay Agarwal’s century (136, 123 balls, 13x4, 4x6) went in vain for Hyderabad as it suffered its fourth straight defeat in four games — losing to Karnataka by five wickets.
Wednesday is a rest day and the final round is scheduled for Thursday.
The scores:
Tamil Nadu 182 in 49.2 overs (R. Sathish 67, Saurabh Bandekar three for 43, Robin D’Souza three for 36) lost to Goa 184 for four in 33.2 overs (Amogh Desai 68, Swapnil Asnodkar 77).
Hyderabad 295 for seven in 50 overs (Hanuma Vihari 82, Tanmay Agarwal 136, Ashish Reddy 51, S. Arvind four for 41) lost to Karnataka 300 for five in 48 overs (Mayank Agarwal 70, K.L. Rahul 53, S. Bhavane 81 not out, Manish Pandey 56).
Kerala 202 for nine in 50 overs(Vishnu Vinod 39, Amit Verma 32, Sachin Baby 64, S. Veeraraghavelu four for 46) lost to Andhra 206 for four in 43 overs (K.S. Bharath 65, Ricky Bhui 48 not out).
