Karnataka and Hyderabad settle for a draw

A solid unbeaten 73 by Vamshy Krishna helped Karnataka take a 26 run lead over Hyderabad in the Cooch Behar South Zone (under-19) Trophy match at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Wednesday. But Karnataka's reply to Hyderabad's first innings total of 302 could not help in bringing about any decisive result to the match as it meandered to a tame draw on the final day.

Resuming at the overnight score of 126 for 4, Karnataka proceeded to muster 328 in their first innings. Stuart Binny (0) was the first to go in the fourth over of the day. Binny after a 32 minute stay gave a catch to Nalin Reddy to give Swapnil Mantri his first wicket of the innings. His overnight partner Deepak Chougule (53), lasted ten more overs before falling leg before to Taufeeq Ahmed. This brought in Vamsy Krishna and Keerti V Bhat but Bhat soon lost his defences to Taufeeq.

Then Vinay Uthappa and Vamshy Krishna put on a useful 80 runs for the eighth wicket in 23.2 overs which enabled Karnataka to cross the 200- run mark. The fall of Uthappa brought in Steve Lazarus to the crease. The left arm medium pacer frustrated the Hyderabad bowlers in a 61 run ninth wicket partnership with Vamshy Krishna in 11.3 overs. Vamshy found yet another unlikely partner in Dharmichand and the two added 30 runs for the tenth wicket in 5.2 overs.

In reply Hyderabad started their second innings disastrously. They lost the in form T Suman (5) in the third over of the innings with only 7 runs on the board. Then the other opener Shashank Nag (25 not out) and Imran Mohd. (3) carried the score to 29 when Imran offered a catch to B Chipli off Dharmichand. This brought in AT Rayudu to the centre. Shashank and Rayudu battled it out before play was called off at 16.10 hours. Karnataka by virtue of the first innings lead took five points from the match while Hyderabad picked up three.