Karnataka emerge champs

Karnataka cruised to a comfortable nine-wicket win over Andhra in their final league match to emerge champions in the South Zone T20 tournament for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy here on Friday.

The in-form Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul scored an unbeaten half century each to guide the hosts 136/1 in 18.1 overs after restricting Andhra to a modest 130 all out in 20 overs.

Karnataka also qualified for the all-India knockouts to be held in Ranchi from March 25-31. Kerala, who finished runners-up, also made it to the knockout stage.
Agarwal (75 n.o., 60b, 9x4) and Rahul (60 n.o., 48b, 4x4, 2x6) shared unbroken 135 runs for the second wicket to help Karnataka chase down the 131-run target. Karnataka lost opener

Uthappa for kncokouts

Having recovered from his ankle injury that he sustained during Vijay Hazare Trophy Nationals, Robin Uthappa returned to the Karnataka T20 squad for the knockouts.
The squad: R Vinay Kumar (capt), Stuart Binny (vice-capt), Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, CM Gautam (wk), Amit Verma, A Mithun, SL Akshay, Ronit More, K Gowtham, Kunal Kapoor, J Suchith. Batting coach: J Arunkumar; Bowling coach: Mansur Ali Khan.

score board

ANDHRA: Srikar Bharat c Gautam b Binny 25, Manoj Sai c Gautam b Akshay 6, Sai Krishna (run out) 7, B Sumanth (run out) 30, AG Pradeep c Pandey b Vinay 29, Y Gnaneswara Rao c Gautam b Mithun 13, Syed Sahabuddin c Rahul b Pandey 4, Dasari Swaroop Kumar st Gautam b Pandey 6, T Atchuta Rao c Binny b Pandey 0, AG Praveen (not out) 3, B Sudhakar c & b Pandey 6. Extras (LB-1) 1. Total (all out; 20 overs) 130.

Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-39, 3-39, 4-81, 5-107, 6-114, 7-118, 8-118, 9-124.
Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 2-0-7-1, A Mithun 3-0-15-1, SL Akshay 4-0-24-1, K Gowtham 3-0-25-0, Stuart Binny 4-0-31-1, Manish Pandey 4-0-27-4.

KARNATAKA: Mayank Agarwal (not out) 75, Manish Pandey lbw Sahabuddin 0, KL Rahul (not out) 60. Extras (W-1) 1. Total (1 wkt, 18.1 overs) 136.
Fall of wicket: 1-1 (Pandey).

Bowling: KS Sahabuddin 3-0-10-1, T Atchuta Rao 4-0-31-0, AG Praveen 3-0-25-0, B Sudhakar 3-0-25-0, D Swaroop Kumar 2.1-0-20-0, Y Gnaneswara Rao 3-0-25-0.

Other scores: KERALA: 146/9 in 20 overs (VA Jagadeesh 60; Sayed Badiuzzama 2-26, Darshan Misal 2-16, Shadab Jakati 2-30) bt GOA: 108 all out in 19.3 overs (Ravikant Shukla 29, Reagan Pinto 33; Sandeep Warrier 3-19, Padmanabhan Prashanth 4-13). KERALA: 4 points; GOA: 0.

HYDERABAD: 167/7 in 20 overs (T Suman 48, Bavanaka Sandeep 44; Lakshmipathi Balaji 2-24, Palani Amarnath 2-33) bt TAMIL NADU: 159/9 in 20 overs (S Anirudha 28, Arun Karthik 40; Chama Milind 3-22, Akash Bhandari 3-24, Ashish Reddy 2-39). HYDERABAD: 4; TN: 0.

Final standings: Karnataka (18 points), 1; Kerala (16 points), 2; Tamil Nadu (10 points), 3; Andhra (8 points), 4; Hyderabad (4 points) 5; Goa (4 points) 6. Note: Hyderabad finished ahead of Goa on better net run-rate.