Tamil Nadu hold the aces against Kerala

Tamil Nadu were holding the upper hand in a keenly fought KSCA Under-25 Trophy battle against Kerala at Bangalore's Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodayar Sports Complex today. Despite a brave unbeaten century by opener C Sanju, Kerala at 169/3 were still 277 runs behind Tamil Nadu's first innings score of 446.

Resuming at 297/4, TN lost overnight centurion Lokesh who added just four more runs before falling for 124 (177 balls, 15 fours). It was the start of a streak of four consecutive wickets to opening bowler Prasanth Chandran. The other overnight batsman Surendra Doss belted a lusty 88 off 86 balls inclusive of 13 fours and a six before being seventh out at 366.

Padmaraju and Veeranan propped up the innings with a last wicket stand of 58 before the latter was caught and bowled by leg spinner CM Shyam for a breezy 25 off 27 balls. Padmaraju remained undefeated on 42 (52 balls, 7 fours) as TN closed at 446 in the 117th over. Chandran took the bowling honours with figures of 5/118.

Kerala got off to a bright start as Sanju and N Bijumon added 55 for the first wicket before off spinner C Dhandapani saw the back of the latter for 18 with a return catch. Dhandapani, who took all three wickets to fall for 46 runs, continued to torment the batsmen, removing CM Deepak and skipper KPK Nambiar cheaply as Kerala stuttered to 73/3. But Sanju and S Ramakrishnan (25) steadied the ship with an unbroken 96-run stand for the fourth wicket.