Shinde seals an outright win for Karnataka

Surindra Shinde's sedate 97 helped the Karnataka Under-25 team to score a 4 wicket win on the third and final day's play over Andhra in the KSCA Coca Cola Under-25 Tournament at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Saturday.

Set to score 238 for a win, Karnataka lost opener Shyam Ponnappa (6) in the fourth over of the innings when he was caught behind by TS Prasad off Anil Kumar. Then the new batsman AR Mahesh (12) in the company of the other opener V Pramod (23) took the score onto 39 when Mahesh found himself struggling to reach his crease in the ninth over. Then nine balls later Pramod departed, giving a catch to BB Krishna off the bowling of Anil Kumar.

Surindra Shinde (97) and S Rajashekar (40) put the Karnataka innings back in the right track with a 95-run fourth wicket stand in 24.5 overs. Rajashekar departed after offering a catch to Arjun Kumar off VVB Reddy. Amith Kumar (51) now joined Shinde to forge a 82-run fifth wicket partnership to ensure Karnataka of sealing a well deserved win. Shinde lost his defences to K Laxman and the very next ball M Vinod (0) was caught behind. But Amith Kumar and Sunil Kumar (5) saw Karnataka through.

Earlier, play started late due to rain and resuming at the overnight score of 169 for 9, Andhra added just 15 runs before their second innings folded up. Top scorer S Arun Kumar (65) was the last man to be dismissed when he offered a catch to S Rajashekar off Sunil Kumar.