Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad settle for a draw

Rain affected more than half a day's play as Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad settled for a tame draw in their KSCA Coca Cola Under-25 Tournament match at the Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodayar Sports Complex in Bangalore on Saturday.

Play started only at 14.15 hours on the third and final day due to a continuous drizzle in the morning. Resuming at the overnight score of 262 for 8, Hyderabad's first innings folded up at 290. Ravichandra (104), who was stranded at 97 overnight, completed his century in no time. However he was the first to go when he was caught at square leg by K Velmurugan off DS Doss. Then Fatima Reddy (17 notout) and Mallikarjun (6) took the score on to 290 when Mallikarjun found himself stranded out of his crease.

Tamil Nadu in reply made a disasterous start to their second innings losing opener Ravindra John (0) off the fifth ball of the innings when he offered a catch to Saberwal off Ghouse Baba. Then the other opener S Badrinath (3) and N Lokesh (19) took the score upto 26. Badrinath was the next to be dismissed when he gave a chance to Fatima Reddy at midwicket off the bowling of Ghouse Baba. Ghouse Baba claimed his third wicket of the innings, that of Lokesh, when he shattered the batsman's defences.

C Hemanth Kumar (11) and R Satish (10) then took the score on to 49 for 3 when play was called off for the day. Tamil Nadu got 5 points while Hyderabad had to be content with three. Tamil Nadu now take on Karnataka in the finals which is to be played at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore from October 9 to 11.