Skipper Jakati stars in Goa's innings win over Andhra

Leading from the front, Goa's captain SH Jakati ensured an innings and 13-run win for the hosts over Andhra on the final day of their South Zone Under-22 tournament match at the Panjim Gymkhana Ground in Goa on Friday.

Put into bat on the opening day, Goa were given a solid start by openers Sagun Kamat (86) and N Mulgoankar (14) who added 65 runs in 31.1 overs. Therefater A Jadhav (75) and G Phadte (69), who came together for the third wicket, took the score to 247 in the 89th over. The Goan skipper entered at the fall of the fourth wicket, that of Jadhav. In the company of RDR D'Souza (32), Jakati (73) put on 82 runs for the fifth wicket. Jakati finally departed with the score on 375.

The score was then boosted by some sensible batting by the lower order especially KA Angle (56) which made sure of the Goan scorecard reaching 438 for 8 when they declared. In response Andhra started off on the wrong foot losing its openers M Tahir Hussain (4) and N Anil Kumar (13) with only 25 on the board. B Samant (4 for 66) and Jakati (4 for 39) ran through the middle order to leave the visitors at 105 for 7 in 38 overs. But TK Ayappa Swamy (79) and MN Vikram Verma (52) came to the rescue by adding 128 runs for the eighth wicket. Andhra were all out for 234.

Following on, Andhra fared worse and were bundled out for 191 runs. Only three batsmen, opener Anil Kumar (56), VM Sai (66) and Mohd Faiq (30) managed to reach double figures. Jakati returned figures of 5 for 72. The spoils were shared by Jakati and D'Souza (4 for 40).

In another South Zone under-22 match at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Ernakulam, Karnataka and Kerala settled for a draw the final day on Friday. Opting to bat, Karnataka were restricted to 178 in the first innings. The fact that seven of their batsmen failed to reach double figures did not help Karnataka's cause. CM Shyam (4 for 58) and S Mathen (5 for 44) were the wreckers-in-chief for Kerala.

In reply, the Kerala batting failed and they conceded a seven run lead. The Kerala batsmen never really built upon their innings and off spinner M Dharmichand (3 for 49) and Nadig (3 for 38) ran through the side. In Karnataka's second outing, it was Mathen (4 for 66) who tormented them. Karnataka were reduced to 178 for 7, when their skipper Shinde declared the innings. Amit Kumar (54) was the top scorer for Karnataka.

Set to score 186 for a win on the final day, Kerala proceeded to score 61 runs while losing five wickets when stumps were drawn.