Agarwal's breezy ton spurs Karnataka

Mayank Agarwal’s blazing century was the cornerstone of Karnataka’s imposing 163-run triumph over Andhra Pradesh in a South Zone match of the Subbiah Pillai ODI Championships at the AOC stadium here on Friday.

Andhra’s decision to bowl first after winning the toss boomeranged spectacularly as Karnataka posted 330 runs, riding on Agarwal’s 137-ball 162 and Manish Pandey’s 63-ball 75. In reply, Andhra folded for 196 in 47.4 overs skipper Mohammad with Kaif’s 54 and Siva Kumar’s 40 being the only highlights.

Agarwal’s brilliant knock was studded with 22 fours and three sixes before he ended up being caught by Ricky Bhui off Andhra’s top wicket-taker Ayyappa Bandaru, who was their most economical bowler as well picking up four wickets conceding 43 runs in his 10 overs.

Agarwal and Pandey added 147 runs in just over 26 over and another significant partnership followed that brisk stand for the second wicket. Karun Nair joined forces with Agarwal to milk 88 runs in little over nine overs as Karnataka powered past the 300-run mark. Nair’s dismissal sparked a mild collapse as Karnataka lost couple of quick wickets in the slog overs but by then they had put enough runs on the board.

Andhra struggled miserably when it came to replying. Pacer Abhimanyu Mithun was the wrecker-in-chief for Karnataka, bagging four for 18 in his stifling 10 overs. Off-spinner Udit Patel picked up three for 46 in his 10 overs as Karnataka grabbed a comfortable win.

Agencies

Other brief scores: Kerala: 283/7 in 50 overs (Sanju Samson 26, Amit Verma 56, Sachin Baby 100, Raiphi Gomez 43; Harshad Gadekar 5-74) lt to Goa: 287/8 n 49.1 overs (Amogh Desai 124, Darshan Misal 69, Amit Yadav 37 n.o.; Basil Thamp 6-51).
Tamil Nadu: 334/6 in 50 overs (Abhinav Mukund 139, Baba Aparajith 66, R Sathish 79 n.o.; Ashish Reddy 2-61, CV Milind 3-71) bt Hyderabad: 287 all out in 47.2 overs (Tirumalasetti Suman 136, Praneeth Kumar 68; L Balaji 3-55, M Mohammed 2-48, V Yomahesh 2-61).