da realbet: Santosh Kumar’s six wicket haul on the final day propelled theKarnataka Under-19 team to enter the knock out stage of the CoochBehar Trophy with a 173-run victory on the third and final day overKerala in the South Zone league match at the KRL
Natarajan Sriram16-Oct-2000Santosh Kumar’s six wicket haul on the final day propelled theKarnataka Under-19 team to enter the knock out stage of the CoochBehar Trophy with a 173-run victory on the third and final day overKerala in the South Zone league match at the KRL Ground in Ambalamugalon Monday. The other team to enter the knock out stage from the zoneis Andhra who scored an innings and 67 run win over Goa on Sunday.Resuming their second innings at 217 for 8, Karnataka were all out for246, leaving Kerala a stiff victory target of 300.Kerala folded up for 126 off 35.3 overs. The openers R Kapil (9) andMM Nathani (18) made a sedate start adding 24 runs in 9.4 overs. Offspinner Santosh Kumar who was introduced early into the attack thenbowled Kapil. Rejas joined Nathani and the two took the score to 38when Rejas was bowled by Santosh Kumar. The last ball of Santosh’snext over saw the exit of Nathani in similar fashion. Skipper VipinLal (19) and RP Sujith (39) took the score to 58. But at this junctureVipin was caught by Krishna off Kumar. Three balls later NJ John (0)returned to the pavilion after being bowled by Kumar.In the next over Dharmichand had AC Antony caught by KV Bhatt beforethe batsman had opened his account. At 59 for 6 in the 21st over,Kerala were staring at certain defeat. But Sujith found some goodcompany in the later order batsmen to take Kerala past the 100 runmark. Sujith after a 46-run seventh wicket stand with Aneesh (10) in7.5 overs, was caught by HTS Rao off Dharmichand. For his brightknock, Sujith faced 23 balls while hitting 6 boundaries and 2 sixes.Kumar now came back to claim the wicket of Aneesh by shattering hisdefences. Dharmichand then dismissed S Santh (12) and S Sooraj (7) offsuccessive deliveries. Santosh Kumar finished with six for 35 whileDharmichand had four for 64.