Sport
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Cricket
Karnataka posts convincing win
By Our Staff Reporter
VISAKHAPATNAM, JAN. 3. Karnataka seemed to have brushed aside its Ranji Trophy upset and started its title defence in the K. S. Subbaiah Pillai limited-over tournament with a convincing 52-run win over Tamil Nadu at the MCV Stadium here on Thursday.
Captain J. Arun Kumar's quick-fire century (100, 99b, 6 x 1, 4 x 13, 139m) and the exhilarating 154-run stand for the third wicket he shared with Barrington Rowland (66, 86b, 4 x 8, 73m) in 139 balls after Tamil Nadu medium pacer L. Balajee rocked the team with two wickets in his first two overs, set the tone for Karnataka's win.
The team totalled 307 runs for seven wickets after opting to bat first and its medium pacers had Tamil Nadu tottering at three wickets down for 55 runs by the 11th over. Tamil Nadu could not recover from this position in spite of middle order batsman S. Sarath (86, 99b, 4 x 11, 147m) once again playing a responsible knock, and sharing 42 runs with Rajat Bhatia (20, 21b, 4 x 3) for the third wicket and 40 runs for the next wicket with Madanagopal, and No. 8 batsman T. S. Vasanth Saravanan (82, 89b, 9 x 4, 108m) trying to make a match of it. Their knocks matched the fireworks of Karnataka innings and kept pace with the required run-rate but the team could not accomplish the task and was all out with 2.5 overs remaining.
Saravanan not only denied a hat-trick to Vijay R. Bharadwaj, the bowler having removed Hemang Badani and Robin Singh off consecutive balls at 112 in the team's 20th over and his fifth, but also gave a glimmer of hope to Tamil Nadu putting on 80 runs for the seventh wicket with Sarath. But once Sarath failed to beat a throw from Ayyappa from gully, the defeat was certain. Saravanan kept hitting the bowlers all round the wicket till almost the end, before finally hitting Ganesh straight to Beerala at the long off.
On a chilly and windy morning Balajee had Aditya Mishra caught by the third slip and Mithun Beerala in the mid off but Arun Kumar and Barrington collared the Tamil Nadu bowling. Even after the pair was separated, with Barrington falling to a fine catch by Rajat Bhatia at mid on off M. R. Srinivas and Arun Kumar played back to Robin Singh, Vijay Bharadwaj kept the tempo slamming 41 (43b, 4 x 5) before Rajat Bhatia put an end to his innings with a splendid catch, running about 15 yards from the long on position.
Sunil Joshi (32, 29b, 4 x 3) and B. Akhil (28, 26b, 4 x 1) took the total nearer to 300-mark with their 56-run stand for the seventh wicket before the former was clean bowled by Balajee.
The scores:
Karnataka: J. Arun Kumar c and b Robin Singh 100, Aditya Mishra c J. R. Madanagopal b L. Balajee 0, Mithun Beerala c Hemang K. Badani b Balajee 0, Barrington Rowland c Rajat Bhatia b M. R. Srinivas 66, Vijay R. Bharadwaj c Rajat Bhatia b S. Sriram 41, Thilak Naidu c S. Suresh b T. S. Vasanth Saravanan 13, Sunil Joshi c Balajee 32, B. Akhil (not out) 28, Dodda Ganesh (not out) 9. Extras (lb-4, nb-4, w-10): 18. Total (for seven wickets in 50 overs): 307.
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-10, 3-164, 4- 192, 5-230, 6-233, 7-289.
Tamil Nadu bowling: L. Balajee 10-0-52-3, M. R. Srinivas 10-0-77-1, Rajat Bhatia 2-0-24-0, T. S. Vasanth Saravanan 8-0-56-1, S. Sriram 10-0-48-1, Robin Singh 10-0-46-1.
Tamil Nadu: S. Suresh c Thilak Naidu b Dodda Ganesh 4, S. Sriram c Akhil b Venkatesh Prasad 5, Rajat Bhatia c Thilak Naidu b N. V. Ayyappa 20, S. Sarath (run out) 86, J. R. Madanagopal c Thilak Naidu b Aiyyappa 17, Hemang K. Badani b Vijay R. Bharadwaj 4, Robin Singh c Thilak Naidu b Vijay Bharadwaj 0, T. S. Vasanth Saravanan c Mithun Beerala b Ganesh 82, T. R. Arasu b Sunil Joshi 4, M. R. Srinivas b Sunil Joshi 6, L. Balajee (not out) 1, Extras (b-4, lb-15, nb-1, w-6): 26. Total (in 47.1 overs): 255.
Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-13, 3-55, 4-95, 5-112, 6-112, 7-192, 8-217, 9-241.
Karnataka bowling: B. K. Venkatesh Prasad 9-0-35-1, Dodda Ganesh 8.1-0-49-2, N. C. Aiyyappa 8-0-52- 2, Vijay R. Bharadwaj 9-0-41-2, Sunil Joshi 10-0-40-2, B. Akhil 3-0-19-0.
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