da doce： National Cricket Academy took their appointed place in the MRF-BuchiBabu Trophy tournament semifinals, besting holders Karnataka on thebasis of their 83-run first innings lead at the Central Polytechnic-India Pistons ground in Chennai today
Sankhya Krishnan26-Aug-2000National Cricket Academy took their appointed place in the MRF-BuchiBabu Trophy tournament semifinals, besting holders Karnataka on thebasis of their 83-run first innings lead at the Central Polytechnic-India Pistons ground in Chennai today. The match was called off at teaby which time Karnataka had made 112/3 in their second innings withVijay Bharadwaj stroking an unbeaten fifty. Earlier in the morning,Bharadwaj had added two more wickets to his kitty to end with theoutstanding figures of 6/81. But the man of the moment was Shiv SunderDas who extended his overnight 139 to 184 before being ninth out asNCA closed on 326.Resuming on 245/6, NCA lost the hardhitting Ramesh Powar for seven tothe wiles of leftarm spinner Santosh Vadiaraj. Sharandeep Singh’s stayin the middle was even more ephemeral but after he departed at 262,Das and Rakesh Patel compiled a 67-run association for the ninthwicket. Das’ vigil of almost six and a half hours was finallyterminated when Bharadwaj had him caught at first slip by AR Mahesh.Soon after Fazil Mohammed was bowled by Sunil Kumar in the 99th overto spell finis to the NCA innings. Das had made over 56% of the total.He made his runs off 296 balls and hit 17 boundaries.Karnataka’s second innings was a highly academic exercise. RowlandBarrington was caught at square leg off Rakesh Patel for a fourth ballduck and Mithun Beerala fell leg before to Fazil Mohammed in thefourth over of the innings for six. AR Mahesh (43) and Bharadwaj (51not out) had some batting practice before the former was run out by afluent piece of work from Sridharan Sriram. Bharadwaj’s 93-ball knockincluded five boundaries as the curtain came down at tea withKarnataka on 112/3 from 35 overs. NCA now go on to a semifinal clashwith Indian Airlines at the IIT-Chemplast ground from August 28.