KSCA scores thrilling win over Indian Airlines

Karnataka State Cricket Association scored a thrilling three wicket win off the last over against Indian Airlines Corporation in the Moin Ud Dowla Gold Cup Tournament at the ECIL ground in Hyderabad on Thursday.

Needing 174 for victory, KSCA made a shaky start when they lost opener Barrington Rowland(8), falling leg before to J Srinath off the last ball of the fifth over. Then AR Mahesh (15) joined Vijay Madyalkar (17) and took the score to 44 in a further seven overs, when Madyalkar lost his defences to Sonu Sharma. Seven balls later, Mahesh departed on the same score when he was picked up by Nikhil Chopra.

But the two new batsmen B Akhil (35) and KN Ramesh (39) put their heads down to forge a fruitful 75 run stand for the fourth wicket in 18 overs. Ramesh, in his 58 minute stay faced 64 balls and hit three boundaries before he was caught by VVS Laxman off Sonu Sharma. Akhil did not last long and he departed at the score of 139 in the 35th over. DC Rajesh followed him to the pavilion in the 36th over with out troubling the scorers. But Raj Shekar Shambal (27) in the company of Anand Yalvigi (18 notout) took the score onto 162 before Shambal fell to Srinath. Now it was left to Anand and Amit Kumar (3) to take KSCA to hit the remaining runs and the two finished the match in the last over.

Earlier in the day, Indian Airlines were all out for just 173 runs in their allotted 40 overs. Openers J Arun Kumar (8) and J Srinath (24) added 31 runs in 6.4 overs before Arun gave a return catch to DC Rajesh. Srinath also departed in the tenth over with the score at 44. This brought VVS Laxman (58) to the crease and in the company of Kiran Kumar (23) and both put on 74 runs for the third wicket in 16.5 overs. Laxman was caught behind by Rajashekar off Akhil after a 65 ball essay which saw six hits to the fence and one sailing over it. With the fall of Laxman the rest of the batting failed to flower and Indian Airlines innings folded up in the 40th over with 173 on board.