JOIN USNITK grounds witness thrillers on Christmas day
Great matches…great performances…may be an appropriate sum up of the matches at National Institute of Technology - Karnatka (NITK) grounds 1 and 2 in the South Zone Inter-University Cricket Tournament on Tuesday.
The boys of Annamalai and Kannur Universities showed how one can win matches with willpower and patience. When the match between Annamalai University and Kakatia University, Warangal, turned to be a high-scoring thriller, Kannur University-Kamaraj University ended up in a low-scoring affair, but equally as thrilling as the other game.
At Ground 2, after elected to bat first, Kakatia piled up a mammoth 319 for the loss of nine wickets in 50 overs. Kakatia lost their captain Prajan Gowda on the very first legal delivery of the match (first ball was wide), but were in no mood to retreat. Opener Sai Kumar and one-down P Sharath Yadav ticked the score board as the run rate went near 10 after the completion of 10 overs.
Sai Kumar scored his 50 in the second ball of the eighth over, from just 22 deliveries. Soon, in the very last ball of the same over, he was trapped in front of the wicket by spinner G Prabhakaran. Sharath continued piling runs with the company of right hander Rakesh Goud. Sharath scored 77 from 75 balls with the help of 16 boundaries. Rakesh too scored a well crafted 52 runs from 72 balls. Medium pacer Manibharathy took four wickets for the Chennai side for 44 runs.
Annamalai batted through out the innings without a slight mark of pressure of chasing a huge score.
Both the openers, Prabhakaran P and Aravind punished the Hyderabadi bowlers right and left, as the ball had frequently crossed boundaries. Prajan used his four top bowlers to break the partnership but failed. At last he himself came up to break the partnership, resulted in Prabhakaran (37) giving a simple catch at cover.
The score was 97 at that time. Aravind, with the help of Captain Nagarathnam, made a 56 runs partnership for the second wicket, and eventually scored his century. Aravind got run out for 108 (94 balls), while trying for an unnecessary single, but took the ship almost to the shore.
Manibharathy, with a brilliant 85 run fight, despite a pulled muscle, took the team to an ever-cherishable victory, with seven balls to spare.
At NITK Ground 1, Kannur University enjoyed a one-wicket victory over Madurai Kamaraj University in a low-scoring game in a nail biting finish. Batting first, Kamaraj University were all out for 117 in 22.5 overs, thanks to Kannur bowlers Mohammed Asif who took 6 wickets for 37 runs and Rahul Das, who took 3 wickets for 31 runs.
In reply, Kannur lost early wickets and at one point, they were 94 for 7. They lost two more wickets at 111 but the last pair Azharuddin and Asif managed to cross the target in 32 overs.
Calicut enters quarter
University of Calicut became the first team to enter the quarter-finals of the South Zone Inter-University Cricket Tournament with a nine wicket victory over Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), Anantapur, at the MGM College ground, Udupi. Calicut will take on University of Madras, who has been seeded into the quarter-finals.
Manipal University and Osmania University reached the pre-quarters of the tournament with wins over Rani Channamma University, Belgaum and University of Kerala respectively.