Chennai: Left-arm pacer S. Aravind (3/25) and left-arm spinner J. Suchith (2/18) helped Karnataka defend 148 as they handed Hyderabad their first defeat in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament here at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Thursday. Hyderabad, who lost by 14 runs, are still on top of the table with 12 points and a better run-rate (+1.425) than Karnataka (+0.800) and Tamil Nadu (+0.266), who also have three wins in four matches. If Hyderabad beat Andhra in their final league game on Friday, they would go on to take the title irrespective of other results.
A 66-run opening stand between Tanmay Agarwal (22) and Akshath Reddy (42 off 32 balls) gave Hyderabad a perfect platform to start their chase, but Karnataka’s Aravind and Suchith bowled brilliantly and struck at regular intervals.
Skipper Vijay Shankar led from the front with a stroke-filled 69 and R. Sathish chipped in with an all-round show (32* and 2/18) as Tamil Nadu got the better of Andhra by 37 runs to keep their hopes alive. TN have to win their final league match against Andhra and hope for the results of Hyderabad vs Andhra and Karnataka vs Goa go in their favour.
Scores: Tamil Nadu 179/5 in 20 overs (M. Vijay 20, R. Sathish 32*, Vijay Shankar 69) bt Andhra 142/6 in 20 overs (GH Vihari 37, Ricky Bhui 61, R. Sathish 2/18). Points: Tamil Nadu 4 (12); Andhra 0 (4). Karnataka 148/7 in 20 overs (Mayank Agarwal 65, Pavan Deshpande 32, Mehdi Hasan 3/16, C.V. Milind 2/19) bt Hyderabad 134/6 in 20 overs (Akshath Reddy 42, S. Badrinath 37, B. Anirudh 22, Tanmay Agarwal 22, S. Arvind 3/25, J. Suchith 2/18). Points: Karnataka 4 (12); Hyderabad 0(12). Goa 86 in 18.4 overs (Swapnil Asnodkar 23, Basil Thampi 3/19, Jalaj Saxena 2/15, Raiphi Vincent Gomez 2/8) lost to Kerala 87/1 in 7.5 overs (Vishnu Vinod 35, Mohammed Azharuddeen 22*, Rohan Prem 24*). Points: Kerala 4 (8); Goa 0 (0).
