Hyderabad v Kerala (P Ramachandra Rao Trophy)

Blessington Thomas, CricInfo
23-25 October 1998

Kerala denied hosts Hyderabad an out-right victory on the final day of the three day match (P Ramachandra Rao Trophy) for the South Zone Under-22 championship. Resuming at an overnight score of 114/5, Varun Girilal (46) and Deepak (1) continued from where they left, with stubborn defence and punishing the loose deliveries to the boundary. The first sucess came after 90 minutes of play, when Deepak was consumed (brilliantly who accounted for Ramakrishnan's dismissal in the similar fashion) at silly point by Vinay Kumar, the sixth wicket falling at 173, the pair after adding a valuable and match-saving partnership of 65 runs in 130 minutes in occupying the crease for 45.2 overs and frustrating the home side. Opener Varun Girilal followed immediately at the same total in the shape of the 7th wicket, his monumental innings of 77 took him 319 minutes, and he faced 303 balls with the aid of one six and ten fours.

Kerala's innings folded at 178, 25 minutes to lunch. Forced to follow-on (192 runs behind) Hyderabad had a minimum of 51 including 15 mandatory overs to bowl the opposition out, but yet again opener Varun Girilal came up with another patient innings of 21 in 125 minutes occupying the crease for 39 of the alloted overs, thus sealing the fate of the match, and denying the hosts of outright victory. For the home side, skipper Shivaji Yadav and Santosh Yadav bowled well to account 5 and 4 wickets in the match, respectively. Hyderabad gained (5) and Kerala (3) points from the match. Hyderabad has 10 points while Kerala 3 points from two match respectively. Play was called off after 9 mandatory overs.