East Zone witnesses draws, Tamil Nadu and Kerala score innings win

Bengal ran out of time to be devoid of a well deserved innings win over Assam on the final day of their East Zone Vijay Merchant Under-14 League match at Nurul Amin Stadium in Guwahati on Sunday. Bihar earned five points from their first innings lead while Assam gained three.

Opting to bat on the opening day the visitors were put in the right course with a 99 run opening stand between A Choudhry (43) and A Gorai (60). Then Gorai in the company of his skipper A Chakraborty (42) took the score on to 132. Thereafter, Tanay Bag (37) and stumper A Dutta (35) boosted the team to take the score to 302.

In reply, Assam collapsed in their first innings to 103 with the top score being 24 by skipper D Mahanta. Choudhury was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 5 for 26. Following on, the hosts were in deeper trouble losing eight wickets with only 67 on the board when time ran out. Gorai was the pick claiming 7 of the eight wickets that fell and ended with a match figures of 9 for 30.

In the other East Zone encounter at the MBB stadium in Agartala, Bihar and Tripura settled for a tame draw with both sharing three points each as both of them did not complete their first innings.

Bihar who won the toss and opted to bat first declared at 304 for 8 after resuming the second day at 241 for 4 with opener A Kumar Singh scoring a fine 152. In response Tripura made a solid reply with openers Bappa Das (94) and B Bhowmick (72) adding 177 runs. Thereafter J Choudury (24 off 130 balls) and A dey (7 off 43 balls) took the team to 262 for 4 at the end ofthe final day.

Hyderabad earned eight points out of their South Zone league match against Andhra which was played a Viziaanagaram by crushing the latter by an innings and 194 runs.

Opting to bat Hyderabad on the first day amassed 469 runs thanks to induvidual centuries by opener Prasanth Peter (113) and Anoop Pai (156 not out). In response, Andhra were shot out for just 104 runs. The honours being shared by Alfred Absolom (3 for 15) and N reddy (5 for 37). Asked to bat again Andhra fared a trifle better scoring 171 runs. K Srinivasa Rao (100) was the backbone of the innings even as N Reddy returned figures of 8 for 76. Reddy ended up with match figures of 13 for 113.

Kerala who took on Goa at Thiruvananthapuram made amends to register a fine 151 run win on the final day. Put into bat on the opening day Kerala were dismissed within a day for 128 runs. Kerala then took a slender lead of 20 runs, bowling out the visitors for 108 runs. Prasanth (3 for 16) and Raifi (3 for 11) ran through the Goan line up. Kerala in their second innings were indebted to a fine 94 by opener V Vineeth as they notched up 236 on the board. Yadav was the pick of the Goan attack with figures of 6 for 75. Disaster struck Goa as they set out to hit the required 257 for a win. Goa were bundled out for a paltry 105 runs in 53.1 overs as Jerrin ran through the side with a haul of 6 for 47.

Mean while the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka encounter at the CPT-IP ground in Chennai ended in a draw with the hosts taking five points due to their first innings lead.

Karnataka, who won the toss and elected to bat, put up a fighting 295 on the board thanks to some brilliant batting by Chetan Williams (82). Coming as late a no.8 in the order Williams held the lower order for over 4 1/2 hours. But in turn Tamil Nadu made a better show with the bat even as Williams (4 for 80) came back to torment the hosts.

Tamil Nadu took a 72 run lead with the help of centuries from KKD Karthik (124) and K Shrivasudevadas (135). The duo were involved in a 151 run fourth wicket stand before Vasudevadoss ran out of partners. Vasudevadoss was the last man to be dismissed after a 344 minute stay at the crease. Karnataka in their second innings were 68 for 3 when stumps were drawn on the final day.