Margao, Feb 20:
Karnataka remained unbeaten throughout the tournament to claim the South Zone One Day Subbaiah Pillai Trophy here on Wednesday. In their last league game, Karnataka edged Andhra by one wicket in a tense finish at the Margao Cricket Club (MCC) ground.
Captain R Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun, KL Rahul and Robin Uthappa starred in victory over Andhra. Paceman Vinay, who joined the team on Tuesday after playing for India A against Australia in Chennai, struck four blows for 38 runs as Andhra were bowled out for 228. Mithun took three wickets for 42.
Karnataka team poses after winning the title
In the chase of 229, Karnataka enjoyed a good opening stand between Uthappa (50) and Rahul (75). The associated for 97 runs for the first wicket. However, in the middle and latter part of the innings, Karnataka wobbled, losing wickets in a hurry.
When Vinay was dismissed in the 45th over, Karnataka still needed 13 runs off 32 balls with two wickets in hand. Raju Bhatkal and Ryan Ninan faced some tense moments. Ninan perished attempting a big shot and Karnataka needed 6 off 10 balls with one wicket remaining.
In the final over, Karnataka needed 5 to win and it came down to 4 off 3 balls. KP Appanna hit a boundary off Gnaneshwar Rao to seal the victory.
Karnataka topped the table with 20 points. Kerala were second with 17 points. Both Karnataka and Kerala qualified for all-India Vijay Hazare Trophy which runs from February 26 to March 3.
Brief Scores from league matches on final day
Andhra 228 all out in 48 overs (AG Pradeep 55, B Sumanth 39, Amol Muzumdar 39, R Vinay Kumar 4/38, Abhimanyu Mithun 3/42, KP Appanna 2/46) lost to Karnataka 229/9 in 49.4 overs (KL Rahul 75, Robin Uthappa 50, Stuart Binny 25, B Sudhakar 3/49)
Goa 219 all out in 49.5 overs (Sagun Kamat 71, Robin Ronald D’Souza 50, Manvinder Bisla 30, Prasanth Parameswaran three for 34) lost to Kerala 223/4 in 45.3 overs (Rohan Prem 82 not out, Sanju Viswanath 58, KJ Rakesh 36)
Tamil Nadu 262/9 in 50 overs (Dinesh Karthik 119, Baba Aparajith 51, Ashish Reddy four for 56, CV Milind 3/48) beat Hyderabad 236 in 48.2 overs (Sandeep Rajan 52, K. Sumanth 47, Ravi Teja 43, B. Sandeep 42, P. Amarnath 3/49).
Final standings: 1. Karnataka 20 points; 2. Kerala 17; 3. Andhra 13; 4. Tamil Nadu 9; 5. Hyderabad 3; 6. Goa -2. ThatsCricket
source : http://www.thatscricket.com/ Home> News / by Aprameya / Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
