Goa salvage a draw as Tamil Nadu falter

An interesting final day's play witnessed Goa saving themselves from the jaws of defeat as Tamil Nadu had to be content with a draw in their Cooch Behar South Zone (under-19) Trophy game at the Rajendra Prasad stadium in Margao on Wednesday.

Set to score 165 for a win in the afternoon, Goa were fishing in troubled waters. The second over of the innings saw the exit of opener SK Anup (2) when he gave a catch to the keeper Kartik off L Balaji. His partner RS Borkar (6) did not last long either. With only 24 runs on the board he was caught by Vasudeva Das off Balaji. Balaji had his third victim of the innings in the form of new bat RDR D'Souza (1). D'Souza departed two overs later when he offered a catch to Vidyuth. Balaji then caught Saheel (22) off his own bowling.

Goa were in dire straits with the cream of the top order back in the pavilion and only 39 runs on the board. Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan then had R David (8) to leave Goa tottering at 45 for 5. Then captain SK Suraj (10) and KK Sagun (25 not out) took the score to 63 before the skipper himself offered a return catch to Vidyuth. Goa then were helped by an unfinished 27 run seventh wicket partnership between Sagun and RA Aditya (9 not out) before play was called off for the day.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu in their second innings scored 162 runs for 9 wickets in 61 overs with captain Vidyuth leading the way with a useful 40 runs off 58 balls. Resuming at the overnight total of 33 for 3, Tamil Nadu lost Vasudeva Das (24) in the 21st over. Adhitya Srikkanth (8) also did not last long and in the 23rd over of the innings he lost his defences to D'Souza. Then R Prasanna (22) and Vidyuth (40) put on 55 runs for the sixth wicket in 17.2 overs. After the dismisal of Vidyuth both Prasanna and S Madhu (3) fell in the space of 11 balls between them. Then the Tamil Nadu tail of G Vignesh (34), L Balaji (2) and DT Kumaran (6) wagged a little. They help the team score on to 162 for nine when the Tamil Nadu skipper declared the innings.