Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad off to winning starts

Chennai: M. Ashwin’s all-round performance (2/21 and 34 not out) helped Tamil Nadu prevail over their arch-rivals Karnataka in their opening round match of south zone inter-state T20 tournament here at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday.

Ashwin was involved in a 55-run stand with Dinesh Karthik (45) for the seventh wicket.

Chasing Karnataka’s 144, TN were in a spot of bother when two runouts — Vijay Shankar (30) and B. Aparajith (0) — in as many balls reduced them to 50/4. In a mix-up, Aparajith collided head-on with Karthik and both the batsmen left stranded in the middle.

Karnataka were brilliant in the field during the first half of TN’s innings and it was their sloppy work in the second that proved costly. Ashwin was dropped twice by Mohammed Taha in the 17th over off Vinay Kumar.

Tanmay Agarwal’s 48-ball 91 was the cornerstone in Hyderabad’s emphatic 51-run win over Goa. Agarwal put on 111 for the opening wicket with Akshath Reddy (55 off 32) and 97 for the second with S. Badrinath (49 off 22) as Hyderabad posted 224/4 in 20 overs.

In reply, Sagun Kamat (50 off 44) and Saurabh Bandekar (53* off 25) raised some hopes, but the duo’s efforts proved futile. Hyderabad will take Tamil Nadu on Monday.

Kerala were the other team who registered a victory on Sunday.

They got the better of Andhra by 21 runs. Vishnu Vinod excelled for Kerala with a 63-run knock.

Scores: Hyderabad 224/4 in 20 overs  (Tanmay Agarwal 91, Akshath Reddy 55, S. Badrinath 49) bt Goa 173/5 in 20 overs (Sagun Kamat 50, Darshan Mishal 25, Saurabh Bandekar 53*).
Kerala 175/7 in 20 overs (Vishnu Vinod 63, Jalaj Saxea 22, Sanju Samson 31) bt Andhra  154/7 in 20 overs (Ricky Bhui 48, DB Ravi Teja 33, KS Bharat 24, Shoaib Mohammed Khan 20*).
Karnataka 144/9 in 20 overs (R. Samarth 40, K. Vignesh 2/29, T. Natarajan 2/26, Rahil S Shah 2/24, M. Ashwin 2/21) lost to Tamil Nadu 145/6 in 19.2 overs (Vijay Shankar 30,  Dinesh Karthik 45, M. Ashwin 34*, K. Gowtham 2/25)