Andhra is South Zone champion

March 30, 2015 01:37 am | Updated 01:37 am IST - Kochi:

Andhra brought up its maiden South Zone triumph with a 28-run win over Tamil Nadu in its final league match.

Andhra brought up its maiden South Zone triumph with a 28-run win over Tamil Nadu in its final league match.

After sinking to the bottom of the zone last year, Andhra hit a new high in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy South Zone T20 cricket championship here on Sunday.

Andhra suffered a batting collapse in the league decider but still found the ammunition to jolt Tamil Nadu by 28 runs for its maiden South Zone triumph at the St. Paul’s College ground, Kalamassery.

Andhra topped the six-team league with 16 points from four wins, and qualified for the championship’s national inter-zone phase, which begins at Cuttack on April 1.

There was a three-team race for the second all-India berth and Hyderabad, with a better net run-rate than Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, grabbed it.

This was the day when tails wagged furiously. Andhra, which lost the toss, was in deep trouble at 98 for eight but a 36-run unbroken stand for the ninth wicket helped it finish with a decent score.

Shortly after that, Tamil Nadu was in a stickier situation at 44 for eight, with two 19-year-olds, off-spinner Aswin Hebbar and medium-pacer K.V. Sasikanth doing much of the damage.

The Andhra captain Mohammed Kaif’s brilliant dive to his left to dismiss Anirudha Srikkanth, was one image that stood out during this phase.

Tamil Nadu appeared to be set for another humiliating loss but the ninth-wicket pair of Aswin Crist and Rahil Shah stitched together an unbeaten 57-run stand before they ran out of overs.

Meanwhile, at the Nehru Stadium, Hyderabad’s Ashish Reddy produced a brilliant first-over hat-trick, and a little later, Goa was tottering at 23 for five.

But 22-year-old Darshan Mishal’s career-best 67 (59 balls, 6x4, 3x6) pulled the side out of trouble.

Hyderabad needed to win the match in 17.5 overs and the players were in a hurry. That produced plenty of fireworks with T. Suman and Akshath Reddy hammering sixes, and Hyderabad achieved reached its goal in just 14.3 overs.

The scores (league): Andhra 129 for eight in 20 overs (K.V. Sasikanth 27 n.o., Antony Dhas two for 27, Aswin Crist two for 17) bt Tamil Nadu 101 for eight in 20 overs (Aswin Crist 25, Rahil Shah 28 n.o., Ashwin Hebbar three for 20, K.V. Sasikanth two for 9).

Goa 118 for nine in 20 overs (Darshan Misal 67, Ashish Reddy three for 13, C.V. Milind three for 22) lost to Hyderabad 121 for two in 14.3 overs (T. Suman 34, Tanmay Agarwal 31, Akshath Reddy 39, Darshan Misal two for 27).

Kerala 117 for five in 20 overs (Sanju Samson 28, Arvind Sreenath two for 17) lost to Karnataka 118 for five in 15.4 overs (Mayank Agarwal 68, Pavan Deshpande 29, Basil Thampi two for 15).

Final points table (from five matches): 1. Andhra (4 wins, 1 loss, 16 pts), 2. Hyderabad (12 pts, net run-rate +0.943), 3. Karnataka (12 pts, NRR +0.655), 4. TN (12 pts, NRR -0.416), 5. Kerala (8 pts), 6. Goa (0 pts).

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