Andhra made the most of Hyderabad’s laid-back batting and lax fielding, romping home to a seven-wicket victory in its Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 match at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA stadium here on Friday.
Laying the foundation to the comfortable win was the 114-run third wicket stand between Ricky Bhui (73 not out, 6 x 4, 3 x 6) and D.B. Ravi Teja 46 (3 x 4, 3 x 6), the former sealing the deal with a six and boundary off the game’s last two balls.
After Hyderabad chose to bat, Andhra skipper G. Hanuma Vihari began proceedings with his gentle off-spin. The hostile attack that followed had Hyderabad hobbling not much later. Teenage medium pacer Harishankar Reddy (three for 30) struck the first and a telling blow in his second over, having prolific scorer and opener Akshath Reddy caught by sweeper cover Girinath Reddy.
The rest of the top order was gone in three successive overs -- Akash Bhandari and Kolla Sumanth caught behind -- while Tanmay Agarwal’s pull off Vihari was picked up by Bandaru Ayyappa at deep square leg, the fielder running in from long leg to take the catch.
The back of Hyderabad’s resistance was broken when long on Ashwin Hebbar held Ambati Rayudu’s loft off Ayyappa and a well set B. Sandeep (39, 3 x 4) was again run out.
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Earlier in the day, it was a cakewalk for Kerala against Goa, the former overhauling the latter’s 138 for eight with nine wickets in hand and more than four overs to spare. Speeding up the chase was Sanju Samson’s unbeaten 44-ball 65, studded with a quartet of boundaries and as many big ones, a couple of them sailing high into the galleries. Ably assisting him was K.B. Arun Karthik, who had half a dozen hits to the ropes in his 37 not out.
K.M. Asif, who has only played age level cricket for Kerala, acquitted himself well, claiming three for 25, including Goa’s openers Swapnil Asnodkar, Amogh Desai and top scorer Keenan Vaz. The native of Edavanna in Malappuram district had an impressive 14 dot balls in a four over stint. Taking as many wickets was the more experienced Abhishek Mohan, who conceded 30.
Karun Nair came out guns blazing for Karnataka against Tamil Nadu to emerge the tournament’s top scorer at the Dr. P.V.G. Raju ACA Sports Complex, Vizianagaram.
Cracking the second century of the competition, after Kedar Devdhar’s 100 for Baroda against Gujarat, rollicking form saw the Karnataka hit-man log 111, his 52-ball stay embellished with eight boundary clearing blows and as many to the fence.
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