A chirpy and whistling Virender Sehwag hardly reflected the mood in the ONGC camp. Needing to make Tamil Nadu Cricket Association XI bat beyond the 46th over to earn a slot in the quarterfinals on a better run-rate, ONGC were always on the back foot. Only the adventurous Tamil Nadu batsmen and the weather, which stopped proceedings numerous times, could have rescued them.

To an extent, both factors played a hand in delaying the inevitable before TNCA romped home in the 44th over to knock ONGC out of the KSCA all-India invitation tournament at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Tuesday.

Resuming at a shaky 107 for five, ONGC added a further 39 before declaring their innings closed at 146 for nine in 50 overs. Medium-pacer Tamil Kumaran, who had a five-wicket haul in the opening match against Indian Airlines, returned another five-for (5/41), removing three of the four ONGC wickets to fall in the morning. C Ganapathy (2/58) accounted for the other.

Anxious moments
Tamil Nadu, who survived some anxious moments during their chase, reached 147 for seven in 43.2 overs. It was inevitable that ONGC, who enoyed a better run rate than Indian Airlines, declare to avoid their run-rate being calculated for 100 overs in case they had been all out.

While ONGC maintained an edge over IA by declaring their innings, they had the onerous task of stretching the Tamil Nadu innings for more than 46 overs.

ONGC’s cause didn’t receive any help when Tamil Nadu openers N Einstein and Anirudha Srikkanth raised 46 in just 8.3 overs. While Einstien (19, 35b, 2x4) looked relatively sedate, Anirudha was his usual self, racing to 26 off 27 balls with six fours. Just when ONGC’s worst fears seemed to be coming true, Munaf Patel struck by removing Einstein, bowling him with a delivery that swung enough to disturb the off-stump. The right-arm medium-pacer then got rid of Anirudha, trapping him in front.

Sumit Narwal got into the act, cleaning up one-drop P Satish for a duck before Munaf elicited an edge from Suresh Kumar to reduce Tamil Nadu to 65 for four. ONGC now were sniffing an escape route. A brief resistance from skipper S Vasudeva Dass K and R Srinivas, who put together 23 for the fifth wicket, ended when Dass was caught behind flashing at a delivery marginally outside off-stump from Vikram Jeet Malik.

R Srinivasan played an unnecessarily waft at Malik to put stumper Ravi Kant in business again.

At 90 for six and the ONGC bowlers in fine fettle, it could have been anybody’s match. But KH Gopinath (23 n.o.) and R Ashwin (24) had other plans.

The two added a valuable 44 for the seventh wicket to put the issue beyond ONGC. Though Narwal dismissed Ashwin, Tamil Nadu were left with only formalities to complete. 

Hyderabad through
At IAF, Hyderabad, down and seemingly out for the count against Air India, were saved by a rearguard act by Vishal Sharma and Ibrahim Khaleel. In pursuit of the Airmen’s imposing 324, Hyderabad lost their ninth wicket with nearly 14 overs to go when Sharma (2 n.o., 46b)  joined Khaleel (36 n.o., 99b) in the middle. The last pair hung on together for a whopping 82 balls to ensure their passage into the last eight stage. While AI had lost their previous match against KSCA President’s XI, Hyderabad had earned a draw.
All the three host teams made it through to the knockout stage.

Brief scores: At Chinnaswamy: ONGC: (O/n 107/5) 146/9 decl in 50 overs (Tamil Kumaran 5-41, C Ganapathy 2-58) lt to Tamil Nadu XI: 150/7 in 43.2 overs (Anirudha Srikkanth 26; Munaf Patel 3-40, Vikram Jeet Malik 2-44, Sumit Narwal 2-44).

At IAF: Air India: 324/3 in 59.3 overs (Sushanth Marathe 84, Suresh K Raina 36, Prasanth Naik 100 n.o., Manish Pandey 53 n.o.) drew Hyderabad CA: 140/9 in 72 overs (Anoop Pai 46, Ibrahim Khaeel 36 n.o.; Moondeep Mangela 4-28, Pritham Gandhe 4-42).

At RSI: KSCA XI: 277/6 in 65 overs (Bharath Chipli 81, KB Pawan 86; Mohnish Parmar 2-36, Sivan Sharma 2-49) drew Indian Oil Corporation: 19/2 in 6.2 overs.

At JIRS: KSCA Colts: 173 lt to Chemplast (O/n 139/3): 174/4 in 49.5 overs (Yashpal Singh 61, Vasanth Saravanan S 33 n.o.; G Vinay 2-25, Nikhil Kashyap 2-64).

Quarterfinal line-up: KSCA XI vs Indian Airlines (Chinnaswamy stadium), KSCA President’s XI vs KSCA Colts (IAF), Chemplast vs Hyderabad Cricket Association (JIRS), TNCA XI vs Kerala Cricket Association (RSI).