TN beat Karnataka by four wickets

Vijay Bharadwaj's unbeaten 207 went in vain as Tamil Nadu carved out an impressive four-wicket victory over former champions Karnataka in the South Zone Ranji Trophy cricket league match in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Bharadwaj's knock was studded with 32 fours and a six.

Medium pacer L Bajai shone for the visitors, bagging four of the six wickets that fell on Wednesday, as the home team, overnight 233 for four, was dismissed for 388 in the second innings.

Chasing a 136-run target, Tamil Nadu achieved it in the 32nd over, losing six wickets.

The victory earned Tamil Nadu eight points, taking their tally to 13 from two outings, while Karnataka have three.

Brief scores:
Karnataka 215 and 388 (V Bharadwaj 207 no, R Barrington 69, D Ganesh 27, L Balaji 4/120, M R Srinivas 3/45).
Tamil Nadu 468 and 138 for 6 (H Badani 34 no, S Ramesh 25, D Ganesh 2/39, M A Khan 2/38).

Andhra registers outright win over Goa

Hosts Andhra Pradesh registered an outright victory over Goa and collected eight points on the final day of their South Zone Ranji Trophy match in Vijayawada on Wednesday.

Needing 88 runs to win, Andhra reached the target losing just three wickets.

Andhra started their second innings after the tea break but lost the wickets of L N Prasad Reddy (0) and captain M S K Prasad (8) for 24 runs.

Then Venugopal Rao and Amit Phatak added 62 runs for the third wicket before the latter was bowled by Nitin Kalekar.

Phatak scored 34 runs, inclusive of four fours.

Venugopala Rao (34) and G N Srinivas (3) were the not out batsmen.

Earlier, resuming at their overnight score of 57 for six, Goa were bowled out for paltry 191 runs in their second essay.

Only Kiran Pawar (104 not out) and Shadab Jakati (52) could resist the Andhra bowlers.

R V Ch Prasad was the chief wicket-taker for Andhra, claiming three wickets for 14 runs while Vatekar also chipped in with three wickets for 24 runs.

With this win, the hosts collected eight points while Goa had to go back without a single point.

Raju spins Hyderabad to victory

Left arm spinner Venkatapathy Raju did the star turn for Hyderabad, grabbing five wickets for 66 runs, to help his team clinch a 144-run victory against hosts Kerala on the fourth and final day of the Ranji trophy league match in Kochi on Wednesday.

Set to score 327 for a win, Kerala, overnight 10 for no loss, were dismissed for 182 in 99.1 overs.

Hyderabad had declared their second innings on Tuesday at 334 for 9.

M P Sorab (56) and captain Sunil Oasis (26) were the main run-getters for Kerala.

Hyderabad skipper Raju was ably assisted by Shivaji Yadav, who took four wickets for 32 runs.

Hyderabad bagged eight points from the victory.

Brief scores:
Hyderabad: 117 and 334 for 9 decl.
Kerala: 125 and 182.

Mail Cricket Editor