India Local: Rain plays havoc with South Zone varsity matches

Inclement weather continued to seriously disrupt the schedule in the South Zone inter-university cricket matches being conducted in Chennai. On Friday, five of the eight matches were not played because of rain or wet conditions of the ground. Even the remaining three matches were affected by the weather.

Bangalore coasted to a nine wicket victory over IIT, Chennai at the Anna University ground. Batting first, IIT were skittled out for 76 in 21.4 overs. Extras with 17 was the top score. Bangalore quickly completed their victory in 11.3 overs.

At the RKM Vivekananda college grounds, Andhra defeated Gandhigram by 86 runs. Put in to bat, Andhra scored 179 for four in 28 overs, thanks to valuable knocks by opener S Ranga Rao (62) and K Gangadhar (40 not out). Gandhigram in reply were all out for 93 in 24.2 overs.

At the University Union ground, Pondicherry Central were declared winners against Gulbarga on the spin of the coin after rain prevented further play. Batting first, Gulbarga scored 154 for six in 25 overs and Pondicherry Central were 79 for six in 19.3 overs when bad light stopped play.

There was no play at all in the five other matches, all of which were decided on the spin of the coin. The match between Bharathidasan and Kuvempu at the Pachaiyappa's college ground could not be played because of the wet conditions of the pitch. The match was called off 11 am and Bharathidasan were lucky with the spin of the coin. The same fate befell the game between Rajiv Gandhi and Visweswariah at the Sree Ramachandra Medical college grounds. The match was called off 1.15 pm because of rain and the spin of the coin favoured Rajiv Gandhi. At the Pachaiyappa's college ground, the match between NTR Health Science and Annamalai could not be played because of wet ground conditions. NTR Health Science advanced on the spin of the coin. At the Sri Ramachandra Medical grounds no play was possible because of wet conditions in the match between TN Veterinary and Kannur. The toss favoured Kannur. At Stanley Medical college, no play was possible because of wet pitch conditions in the match between Bharathiyar and Sri Krishnadevaraya. Bharathiyar were declared winners on the spin of the coin.