Openers set up narrow win for Goa

Goa moved to the top of the South Zone table with their second win in two matches, beating Kerala by two runs in Visakhapatnam. Sent in to bat, Goa's openers impressed for the second match in a row. Sagun Kamat made his second half-century of the tournament, scoring a 44-ball 55, while Swapnil Asnodkar made a 44-ball 64, an innings that included five fours and three sixes.

No one else contributed much to the score, though, and Goa lost seven wickets for 59 runs to go from 90 for no loss to finish at 149 for 7. Kerala used nine bowlers, giving everyone a go apart from Jafar Jamal and their wicketkeeper Sanju Samson.

Kerala lost wickets regularly in their chase, but opener VA Jagadeesh kept them going with a 43-ball 42 before Padmanabhan Prasanth, coming in at No. 8, smashed an unbeaten 22-ball 43, with two fours and four sixes, to bring Kerala to within three runs of victory with two wickets in hand. Medium-pacer Harshad Gadekar was Goa's most successful bowler, with figures of 3 for 16 in four overs.

Unbeaten half-centuries from Akshath Reddy and Hanuma Vihari propelled Hyderabad to a nine-wicket win over Karnataka in Visakhapatnam. Chasing 141, Hyderabad lost Dwaraka Ravi Teja in the third over of their innings, but didn't lose a wicket after that as Akshath and Vihari put on an unbroken 122 to seal the win with 15 balls remaining. Akshath was unbeaten on 69 off 48 balls, with seven fours and two sixes, and Vihari on 64 off 49, with nine fours.

Batting first after winning the toss, Karnataka were bowled out for 140. They got that much thanks primarily to Robin Uthappa, who scored a 45-ball 64 even as wickets kept falling around him. When Uthappa was out in the 15th over, Karnataka were 92 for 6. From there, their captain Vinay Kumar ensured they set a challenging target, striking 34 from 16 balls, with the help of two fours and three sixes. Medium-pacer Ashish Reddy and part-time offspinner Vihari took two wickets each.

A four-wicket haul from left-arm spinner Rahil Shah gave Tamil Nadu a 32-run win, by the V Jayadevan method, over Andhra in Vizianagaram. Shah opened the bowling and took the first three Andhra wickets as they slipped to 19 for 3 chasing a revised target of 159 in 17 overs. Opener Koripalli Sreekanth made a 28-ball 42, but no one else made a sizeable contribution as Andhra were shot out for 126 with 10 balls remaining.

Sent in to bat, Tamil Nadu had moved to 39 for 1 after six overs when rain stopped play. The match was then reduced to 17 overs a side. After play resumed, opener M Vijay scored a 40-ball 54 and extended his second-wicket partnership with B Aparajith to 97 from 59 balls. Aparajith made a 33-ball 41. Both fell in the space of five balls, before Dinesh Karthik struck 27 off 10 balls, with a four and three sixes, to power Tamil Nadu to 157 for 7. Seamer D Shivkumar was Andhra's most successful bowler, with figures of 3 for 26.