Ojha leads Hyderabad to impressive win

South Zone

Hyderabad, propped up by an incisive spell from Pragyan Ojha, eased to a six wicket win against Andhra at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. After Andhra chose to bat, only three of their batsmen could manage to get into double figures. Ojha picked up 5 for 19 in 7.3 overs and the medium-pacers Anwar Ahmed, Ashish Reddy and Pagadala Naidu shared the other wickets among them, as Andhra were shot out for 107 in the 27th over. Hyderabad required only 22.4 overs to knock off the target, with captain Ravi Teja top scoring with 42. This was Hyderabad's second win in as many games.

Goa recovered from their capitulation to Karnataka, to beat the more fancied Tamil Nadu by seven wickets at the Jain International Residential School Ground in Bangalore. Goa chose to bowl and struck with regularity to restrict Tamil Nadu to 200. Shadab Jakati and Robin D'Souza were the most effective for Goa, claiming three wickets apiece, while Dinesh Karthik and K Vasudevadas were the joint-top scorers' for Tamil Nadu with 43. Goa then made light work of the chase, driven by a boundary-studded century from opener Swapnil Asnodkar. Asnodkar hit an unbeaten 102 off 104 balls, with 16 boundaries, and was well supported by wicketkeeper Rahul Keni - he finished unbeaten on 70. The pair put on an unbroken stand of 153 at better than a run-a-ball, carrying Goa from a shaky 48 for 3 to victory in 37 overs.

Karnataka secured their spot at the top of the South Zone points table after the second round of matches, by beating Kerala by 38 runs at the Rajinder Singh Institute Ground in Bangalore. Karnataka elected to bat, and contributions from most of their top order meant they got up to 315 before being bowled out in the final over of the innings. No one could push on to a century though, despite their top eight getting into double digits, and Ganesh Satish and Amit Verma finished as the two top scorers with 90 and 85 respectively. Kerala launched a spirited chase, built around a quick century from No. 3 Rohan Prem. Prem made 114 off 117 with a dozen fours and two sixes, before he became one of Karnataka's three run-out victims. None of the other batsmen could build on starts - three were out for 34 - as Kerala fell short with time to spare: they were bowled out for 277 with 25 balls remaining in the innings.

Central Zone

Madhya Pradesh put in an impressive all-round showing to thump Uttar Pradesh by nine wickets at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Jamtha, Nagpur. MP inserted UP and bowled them out 105 in the 40th over, with TP Sudhindra and Ankit Sharma claiming three wickets each - both bowlers were miserly as well, conceding only 35 runs 18.4 overs between them. MP's openers, Naman Ojha and Jalaj Saxena, all but completed the job with a partnership of 71 at almost eight an over. Eventually MP breezed home in the 15th over.

Railways sneaked a four-run win against Vidarbha, at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground in Nagpur, restricting the hosts to 218 for 7 in defence of 222. Railways were asked to bat, and several of their batsmen got off to starts but could not build substantial innings. Rajesh Bishnoi was the only one to get to a fifty. Vidarbha were then sitting pretty in the chase at 146 for 1, but a mini-collapse followed. They lost six wickets for 57 runs to allow Railways back into the game and eventually fell short despite having three wickets in hand, with opener Amol Ubarhande's 84 going in vain. Shailender Gehlot and Sanjay Bangar were the most effective of the Railways bowlers, taking three apiece in very economic spells.