Karnataka scored a five-wicket win against Haryana in its last Group C match at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament here on Saturday and that proved beneficial for Kerala as well.
The victory not merely took Karnataka to the top of Group C ,and thus giving it a quarterfinal berth, but it helped Kerala finish second in the group, by virtue of which it qualified for the pre-quarterfinals.
Haryana too made it into the pre-quarterfinals as the 11th team as it was the best third-placed team among all five groups.
Kerala, Haryana and Services finished with 20 points each, four behind Karnataka. In a three-way tie, it was the net run-rate that determined the rankings in the group.
Kerala expectedly had it easy against Meghalaya, winning by five wickets with 7.4 overs to spare.
Meghalaya had limped to 100 for eight, with none of its batters going past 20. Spinners Viasakh Chandran and S. Midhun took two wickets each.
Opener Vishnu Vinod (27, 12b) and Sachin Baby (28, 24b) were the main scorers in Kerala’s chase.
Karnataka’s chase was led by Manish Pandey, who made an unbeaten 64 off 47 balls (3x4, 5x6). The former champion romped home with 2.4 overs remaining.
Earlier, Haryana could only manage 125 for nine, as it struggled against another fine show by the Karnataka bowlers. Off-spinner K. Gowtham shone for the second game in a row, taking three for 17 from four overs.
There were a couple of wickets each for seamers Vidhwath Kaverappa and Vyshak Vijaykumar.
Services was able to take its tally to 20 points after beating Jammu & Kashmir by three wickets, with four balls remaining. That wasn’t enough to overtake Kerala in net run-rate.
Services, in fact, finished fourth in the table, behind Haryana.
The knock-out stage will begin at Kolkata on October 30. The semifinals will be played on November 3 and the final on November 5.
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