Satish's 169 places Tamil Nadu in final

The stage seemed set for a keen duel for the all important first innings lead. But thanks to some fine batting by R Satish, this never came about. The Tamil Nadu right hander stroked his way to a splendid 169 as his team rather comfortably took the lead against Hyderabad in their group B game and qualified for the final of the Coca Cola Trophy South Zone (under-25) tournament at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Thursday.

Tamil Nadu were 224 for six in reply to Hyderabad's first innings score of 283 when play resumed on the final morning. The overnight not out batsmen Satish and Shrinivas steered Tamil Nadu close to their target. Then at 272, Shrinivas was out for 49 compiled off 138 balls and inclusive of four hits to the ropes. In the same over Ghous Baba got rid of Vasudevan for a duck and at 272 for eight, Tamil Nadu were suddenly under some pressure. However Raghuram hit three successive fours of Baba and Tamil Nadu achieved their objective.

Following this, Satish and Raghuram batted with gay abandon and proceeded to add 114 runs for the ninth wicket off 17 overs. Satish, who had come in when Tamil Nadu were precariously placed at 31 for four in the ninth over, was finally out at 386 in the 108th over. For his exemplary 169, Satish batted a shade over six hours, faced 293 balls and hit 24 fours. Off the next delivery, Raghuram was out for a breezy 62. He faced only 50 balls and hit seven fours and two sixes. Ghous Baba finished with five for 95.

In the remaining time, Hyderabad scored 160 for five off 46 overs. Opener Karthik Ramaswamy (46) and skipper Anirudh Singh (60 not out) added 64 runs for the second wicket off 18.5 overs. The match was called off after eight mandatory overs.