Goa crush Andhra for third win

Goa's winning streak extended to three, after crushing Andhra by a whopping 77 runs in Vizianagaram. Harshad Gadekar and Amit Yadav took four wickets each to send the hosts crashing to a sorry 64. Chasing 142, the right-arm seamer Gadekar and the offspinner Yadav combined to leave Andhra reeling at 23 for 7. None of the top six managed double digits and the highest score of the innings was 17 by the No.9 K Harish. The innings was wrapped up in the 15th over when Yadav took a return catch to dismiss the No.11 B Sudhakar. Earlier, Goa were carried by the wicketkeeper Keenan Vaz who scored 53. Goa lost their way at 69 for 5 but a stand of 58 for the sixth wicket revived them. Vaz hit eight fours and a six in his 27-ball knock. Goa lost three wickets off the last three balls of their innings but their score was more than sufficient, in the end.

A three-wicket haul by M Prabhu, the offspinner, helped Tamil Nadu to their second win, beating Hyderabad by 30 runs in Visakhapatnam. Chasing 140, Hyderabad were in trouble at 48 for 4, with Prabhu dismissing Rahul Singh and Hanuma Vihari in one over. Hyderabad failed to put on substantial partnerships, the highest being 37 for the fifth wicket between Sundeep Rajan and Akash Bhandari. Rajan scored 34 before he was bowled by the left-arm spinner Rahil Shah. Vijay Shankar struck twice in as many balls to dent Hyderabad's chase further and they were eventually bowled out for 109. Tamil Nadu were asked to bat and they too were jolted early, when Ashish Reddy was on a hat-trick, losing Arun Karthik and Dinesh Karthik with the score at 35 for 2. B Aparajith was dismissed in the eighth over for 28 but his twin B Indrajith stabilized the innings with a 31-ball 37. Indrajith fell in the 15th over and the lower order pushed the score to 139. Reddy, Ravi Kiran and Pragyan Ojha took two wickets each.

An inadequate batting performance underlined Karnataka's second straight loss as Kerela defended 124 to record their first points in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

Robin Uthappa, KL Rahul and Manish Pandey - three of Karnataka's brightest contributors this season - fell inside the Powerplay overs as the low-scoring chase became eventful. With emphasis on rebuilding and a manageable target ahead of them, Ravikumar Samrath dropped anchor. But his 19 came off 29 balls and added pressure at the other end, and Kerela exploited that to claim three wickets in 18 runs to leave Karnataka at 72 for 6. With 30 balls left and captain Vinay Kumar at the crease, the remaining 50 runs was still possible to get. Except U Manukrishnan (2-18), P Prasanth(2-14) and KJ Rajesh(2-22) ensured that did not happen

The skill Kerela displayed with the ball was highly required after only three of their batsmen managed double-figures. Rohan Prem top scored with an unbeaten 44 with four fours to push them to a total that ended up being more than enough.