Karnataka win a thriller, keep winning but TN lead table

Chennai, Feb 29 (UNI)Reigning champions Karnataka survived a strong fight back by minnows Goa to edge them out by a narrow margin of five runs and increase their points tally to 13 from three wins after the third round of the round robin league matches in the Rajni trophy ODI 50 overa side matches for K S Subbaiah Pillai trophy here today.

Goa chasing a stiff target of 313, were all out fo 307 with just a ball to spare in a nail biting contest at the ICL Gurunanak Ground, riding on two brilliant tons by J Arunkumar (108 off 102 balls, 13 fours, two sixes) and Ajay Ratra's 103(105 balls, ten fours) and their 141 run stand for the fourth wicket off 134 balls.

Earlier, batting first Karnataka scored 312 losing nine wickets in the stipulated 50 overs, with M Gautham(40, 48 balls, seven fours, R Vinay Kumar (82, five fours, five sixes) and C Raghu (70, 94 balls, three fours). Devaraj Patel chipped in with a good knock of 52 off 24 balls with fours sixes and an equal number of fours. Vinay and Raghu added 128 runs for the fourth wicket off 134 balls while Raghu and Patel put on 74 for the fifth.

However, host Tamil Nadu, runner-up to Karnataka last year, nosed ahead to lead the points table with 14 from three matches defeating Hyderabad by two wickets chasing 237 off 50 overs reached the score losing eight wickets with no 3 batsman M Vijay scoring a chanceless 108 with nine fours and five sixes and putting on 73 runs for the second wicket with R Ramkumar (37).

Batting first, Hyderabad made 236-6 with Abhinav Kumar (93(119 balls, six fours, one six) top scoring. Tamil Nadu's medium pacer C Ganapathy(3-43) and off spinner R Ashwin(3-32) restricted them.

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