JOIN USNotwithstanding S Arvind’s seven-wicket haul, Tamil Nadu managed to take a slender five-run lead over Karnataka on the second day of their semifinal clash in the Moin-Ud-Dowla Gold Cup tournament on Saturday.
Replying to Karnataka’s big total of 387 all out, Tamil Nadu were powered by a 200-run association for the fifth wicket between B Aparajith and S Suresh Kumar whose centuries helped their side finish their first innings at 392 all out in 89.4 overs.
While Aparajith strokes his way to 122 (175b, 12x4), Suresh helped himself to 105 (151b, 11x4, 1x6) that effectively negated Arvind’s fine effort.
The left-arm seamer, who was out of action for over a year following an injury to his knee, returned to active cricket recently during the Buchi Babu tournament in Chennai and his figures of 19.4-3-72-7 on Saturday will do a world of good to his confidence. On the final day on Sunday, both sides will play 40 overs each to decide the outcome.
In another semifinal at Uppal, hosts Hyderabad scored 383 for eight in 90 overs in reply to Delhi’s 387/6 in 90 overs.
There was no one single stand-out batting performance from the hosts but a string of half-centuries and near half-centuries helped Hyderabad fall just four runs short of Delhi’s first innings total. Amol Shinde (67), A Ashish Reddy (51) and Akshath Reddy (52) got fifties while Rahul Singh (49) and Habeeb Ahmed (48 n.o.) missed the mark narrowly.
Brief scores (At ECIL): Karnataka 387 in 86.5 overs vs Tamil Nadu: 392 all out in 89.4 overs (Ganga Sridhar Raju 32, B Aparajith 122, S Suresh Kumar 105, U Sushil 56, R Rohit 40 n.o.; S Arvind 7-72).
At Uppal stadium: Delhi: 387/6 in 90 overs vs Hyderabad: 383/8 in 90 overs (T Suman 41, P Akshath Reddy 52, Rahul Singh 49, Amol Shinde 67, A Ashish Reddy 51, Habeeb Ahmed 48 n.o.; Parwinder Awana 2-86, Sumit Narwal 2-44).