da premier bet： Brilliant bowling by Sadagoppan Ramesh and ascintillating knock by JR Madanagopal helped TamilNadu beat Kerala by six wickets in the Ranji One-Day South Zone League played at the Guru NanakCollege Ground, Chennai on Monday
Santhosh S11-Dec-2000Brilliant bowling by Sadagoppan Ramesh and ascintillating knock by JR Madanagopal helped TamilNadu beat Kerala by six wickets in the Ranji One-Day South Zone League played at the Guru NanakCollege Ground, Chennai on Monday. Though they wonthe match with ease, Tamil Nadu had to live withthe fact that they could not qualify for the WillsTrophy as Karnataka took the honours of being theSouth Zone Ranji One-Day Champions. Their bestform came a little too late in the tournament.Hyderabad who were the front-runners in the race,shot themselves in the foot by losing to theunfancied Goa. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had eightpoints each and Karnataka qualified by the virtueof their victory over Tamil Nadu.Electing to bat after winning the toss, Keralalost the reliable MP Sorab (9) in the fifth over.Kerala played it safe and reached 81 in the 23over when opener C Sanju was bowled byGokulakrishna for 29 made in 66 balls. Sanju hadadded 66 for the second wicket with PrashanthMenon in 18.2 overs. Menon went on to complete hishalf century and added 53 for the third wicketwith captain Sunil Oasis in 81 balls. Oasis wasdismissed in the 37th over for 31 made in 45 ballswhich included 3 boundaries as Kerala were reducedto 134/3. S Ramesh better known for his battingskills took the wicket of Oasis and then removedMenon in the 41st over. Menon had made 64 in 107balls and hit the balls five times to the ropes.Ramesh wasn’t done yet he went on to pick threemore Kerala batsmen to finish with 5/31 in 9 oversas Kerala innings folded for 184 in the 47th over.The last eight wickets falling for 50 runs.Tamil Nadu had to score runs in double quick timeto be in contention for the KS Subbiah PillaiTrophy as the run quotient would have mattered ifHyderabad won their match against Goa. Tamil Nadugot off to a flying start as they reached theirfifty in the sixth over. But they lost opener SSharath in the sixth over, LBW to the seasonedcampaigner Anathapadmanabhan for 32 made in just22 balls. Sharath’s cameo included sevenboundaries. Tamil Nadu wicket keeper Reuben Pauljoined opener JR Madanagopal and kept the momentumgoing. They added 117 runs for the second wicketin just 95 balls when Reuben charged down thetrack to C Sanju and was neatly stumped. Reubenmade 46 in 47 balls as he struck a six and fourboundaries. Madanagopal in the meanwhile was goinggreat guns smashing the Kerala bowlers all overthe park. He hit two huge sixes and sevenboundaries in his 70 ball innings before he wascaught by Chandrashekara of Yohannan for 81 in the23rd over. Tamil Nadu were going for a quickfinish and send S Mahesh in to bat. Mahesh did notdisappoint as he hoisted a huge six over squareleg but was quickly dismissed by Sanju for 7 madein 3 balls. Tamil Nadu didn’t waste much time asthey reached 185/4 in the last ball of the 24thover.