Three teams locked at the top spot

Fresh from their outright victory over Southern Railway in the previous round, India Pistons went into their fifth round match against Jolly Rovers with their tails up at the CPT-India Pistons ground.

Jolly Rovers, looking for their first win of the season, elected to bat and amassed 302 for the loss of nine wickets. Diwakar Vasu (80) and Dinesh Mongia (73) shared the honours, with the wrecker-in-chief Balaji Rao, who captured five for 88. In reply India Pistons were given a rousing start with openers JA George and Vikram Rathour putting on 64 runs in 13.1 overs. In the end, India Pistons mustered up 275 for seven, chiefly due to a sedate unbeaten 100 by C Hemanth Kumar, who faced 143 balls and hit ten of them to the ropes. The match ended in a draw with India Pistons and Jolly Rovers sharing two points apiece, locking them togather at the top of the table with 22 points apiece.

Some good individual performances highlighted the match between Indian Bank and Vijay Cricket Club at the Guru Nanak College Ground. Electing to bat, Indian Bank lost four wickets for 84, with left arm spinner Murali Karthik taking two wickets with successive deliveries. But Shyam Sundaar (84) and K Srinath (125) rescued Indian Bank with a 207- run fifth wicket stand. Srinath faced 241 balls and hit ten boundaries. Thanks chiefly to the duo, Indian Bank declared their first innings at 357 for eight. In reply, Vijay CC scored 322 for seven. First George John (89) and S Sharath (52) added 137 for the third wicket. But at 245 for seven, Vijay CC were in some danger of finishing behind on the first innings. But some hard hitting by SS Vishwanathan (49 off 48 balls) who added 77 runs off 21.5 overs for the unbroken eighth wicket with MR Shrinivas (37) steered them to their closing total. Though the match ended in a draw, Vijay CC collected two points to join Jolly Rovers and India Pistons at the top spot.

The first day of the match between Globe Trotters and Kohinoor XI at the Southern Railway ground was highlighted by some fine individual performances. There was a splendid show by off spinner Sanjay Satpathy who captured seven wickets for 98 for Kohinoor. But he had to share honours with Hemang Badani who hit 60 and Tanseer Jabbar (74 not out). Globe Trotters lost opener Woorkheri Raman cheaply but the other opener Aashish Kapoor, in the company of Badani carried on till Kapoor became the first of Sathpathi's seven victims. Globe Trotters thereafter lost wickets at regular intervals but then Jabbar in the company of PB Anand (30) and Zaheer Khan (27) steered Globe Trotters to a first innings total of 307. Kohinoor were given a rousing start with openers B Attavar (73) and R John (45) putting on 80 before the latter edged Aashish Kapoor to Vasudevan. Two balls later Satish Kumar followed in the same fashion. Then Noor Mohammad Khan joined Attavar to take the score to 168. Later S Ramesh (51) and S Mahesh (39) added 68 runs for the fifth wicket and Kohinoor took a two run lead with three wickets still intact when the match was called off.

A fine all round performance by UFCC (T.Nagar) saw Alwarpet CC struggle to 152 for six, only to be saved by the overs running out to salvage a draw at the IIT-Chemplast Ground. Electing to bat first, UFCC's innings was held together by a fifth wicket partnership of 65 between M Ramesh (61) and R Prasanna (89). Later L Sivaramakrishnan got 46 and UFCC (T) scored 321. Alwarpet CC, in reply, were off to a bad start and never really recovered. Wickets kept falling at regular intervals as Syed Meraj (4 for 57) wrecked havoc. The only innings of substance was played by opener SP Lakshmi Kumar (73), who was sixth out.

SPIC Recreation Club was indebted to S Manoj who hit an unbeaten 109 off 188 balls with 12 fours to help his team to a fighting total of 319 for nine declared against Southern Railway at the SPIC-YMCA Ground. Put into bat, SPIC were off to a shaky start when they lost LPN Reddy at the score of 19. But V Goutham and MP Sorab initiated a recovery process by adding 58 runs for the second wicket. Then Manoj took over. First with Y Gnaneswara Rao (49) he added 90 runs for the fourth wicket and then with B Ramprakash (57) increased the score by 89 runs in a fifth wicket association. Thereafter Manoj lost his partners at regular intervals before the innings was declared. When Southern Railway batted, Shriram Kannan (5 for 50) ran through the middle and lower order to bundle them out for 178. Spic in their second innings got off to a flying start, with openers Gnaneswara Rao (69) and Gautham (53 not out) adding 110 in 20 overs. The match finally ended in a draw with SPIC gaining first innings points.

Indian Overseas Bank put up a good performance to take a slender first innings lead over Mambalam Mosquitos at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Asked to bat first, Mambalam Mosquitos made a sedate start with openers S Aravind (42) and V Girilal (33) adding 51 in 15 overs. But then the middle order was made to struggle as S Nair picked up three wickets to leave Mambalam Mosquitos 91 for 5. Veteran PC Prakash then steadied the innings with a purposeful 78 before he was the last man out at 261. In reply, IOB took a five run lead. The top and middle order chipped in with some useful contributions, the best being JR Madanagopal's 71 off 93 balls with five boundaries and two sixes.