Ashish, Teja power Hyderabad past Goa

A fantastic all-round show by Ashish Reddy completed a brilliant century by skipper DB Ravi Teja as Hyderabad surprisingly surged to the top of the table in the South Zone one-day tournament for the KS Subbaiah Pillai Trophy.

In a tall-scoring game at the RSI ground, Hyderabad chased down Goa’s 310 for nine, built on the back of a second successive century by Swapnil Asnodkar, with five overs to spare, storming to 311 for five in 45 overs.

Hyderabad now have a league-high 13 points while Goa remained stuck on four despite amassing a huge total.

Teja remained unconquered on 119 (117b, 12x4, 1x6), associating himself in a 116-run (113b) stand for the second wicket with P Akshath Reddy, who made 70. It was, however, Ashish’s fireworks that did the decisive damage. Having taken five for 68 with his medium-pacers, Ashish slammed eight sixes and one four in a 27-ball 66 not out as he and Teja added 111 in only 50 deliveries to power Hyderabad home.

In the morning, Asnodkar’s rapidfire 127 (124b, 16x4) was complemented by contributions through the order, but on an excellent batting deck, Goa’s total proved way too inadequate in the face of Ashish’s pyrotechnics.

Kerala picked up their first four points with a nervy three-wicket win over Andhra at the JIRS ground. The experienced Y Venugopala Rao eased his way to a 98-ball 68 and G Chiranjeevi smashed 53 in 63 deliveries to help Andha, stuck in, post a competitive 278 for nine. Paceman P Parameshwaran returned superb bowling figures of five for 27.

Rohan Prem, centurion in a losing cause in Kerala’s last two games, made just 1, but Sachin Baby (78, 90b, 7x4), marshalled the chase admirably as Kerala reached 289 for seven in the final over, with two deliveries to spare.

Brief scores: At RSI ground: Goa: 310/9 in 50 overs (Amog Desai 46, Swapnil Asnodkar 127, Reagan Pinto 38, Amit Yadav 36; Ashish Reddy 5-68, Kanesh Naidu 3-62) lt to Hyderabad: 311/5 in 45 overs (DB Ravi Teja 119 n.o., P Akshath Reddy 70, Ashish Reddy 66 n.o.; Robin D’Souza 2-68). Hyderabad 4 pts (13), Goa 0 (4).

At JIRS ground: Andhra: 278/9 in 50 overs (KS Shahbuddin 53, Y Venugopala Rao 68, AG Pradeep 30, G Chiranjeevi 53; P Parameswaran 5-27, N Niyas 2-64) lt to Kerala: 282/7 in 49.4 overs (VA Jagadeesh 44, Sachin Baby 78, Sanju Viswanadh 41, KJ Rakesh 40, P Prasanth 31 n.o.; Atchuta Rao 2-49, Vijay Kumar 2-46). Kerala 4 pts (4), Andhra 0 (-2).