Karnataka suffer loss

Karnataka crashed to a rare defeat this season when Hyderabad registered a facile nine-wicket win over them in the South Zone T20 tournament for Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy here on Wednesday. 

Robin Uthappa’s 64 (45b, 8x4, 1x6) and skipper R Vinay Kumar’s 34 were the highlights in Karnataka’s 140 all out at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium. 

 

With Akshath Reddy (69 n.o., 48b, 7x4, 2x6) and Gade Hanuma Vihari (64 n.o., 49b, 9x4) making brisk fifties, Hyderabad waltzed past the target in 17.3 overs, losing just one wicket.

 

Apart from Uthappa, none of the Karnataka top-order batsmen managed to resist Hyderabad bowlers and in fact when Uthappa was dismissed in the 15th over, Karnataka, 92 for six then, were in danger of getting bundled out a sub-par score. 

 

However, Vinay made a useful 34 off 16 balls with two fours and three sixes to add a touch of competitiveness to their total. 

Once again, Vinay led the bowling department admirably conceding just 15 runs in his three overs, picking up the wicket of Dwaraka Ravi Teja. 

However, the rest failed to give any support to Vinay as HS Sharath leaked 37 in his four overs, while A Mithun was carted for 33 in his three. Once their two front-line bowlers faltered, Karnataka were in no position to defend the target. 

Brief scores: At Visakhapatnam: Karnataka: 140 all out in 20 overs (Robin Uthappa 64, R Vinay Kumar 34; Ashish Reddy 2-22, G Hanuma Vihari 2-13) lt to Hyderabad: 141/1 in 17.3 overs (Akshath Reddy 69 n.o., Hanuma Vihari 64 n.o.). 

Goa: 149/7 in 20 overs (Sagun Kamat 55, Swapnil Asnodkar 64; Prasanth Parameswaran 2-20, P Prasanth 2-17) bt Kerala: 147/8 in 20 overs (VA Jagadeesh 42, P Prasanth 43 n.o.; Harshad Gadekar 3-16). 

At Vizianagaram: Tamil Nadu: 157/7 in 20 overs (M Vijay 54, Baba Aparajith 41; D Shivkumar 3-26) bt Andhra: 126 all out in 15.2 overs (KR Sreekanth 42; Rahil Shah 4-26).