There were moments of suspense whether the `Big Three' would make it to the knock out stage of the Ranji Trophy from the South Zone. Ultimately however Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad and Karnataka beat back the strong challenge from Andhra and Kerala and took their appointed places in the next round. The points table illustrates the closeness of the tussle. While Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad and Karnataka finished with 26, 25 and 24 points, Kerala and Andhra just missed the bus with 21 and 19 points respectively.

The keen tussle for supremacy for the top spots and several outstanding performances highlighted the month long campaign. There were quite a few surprise results too, with the biggest upset being Kerala handing a ten wicket thrashing to Karnataka. That result put the six time champions under tremendous pressure. It was only Kerala's inability to take more than three points in their final encounter against Tamil Nadu and Karnataka's nine wicket win over Goa that paved the way for the former champions' entry into the knockout phase.

The start of the competition itself was not devoid of minor surprises. Kerala took five points to Andhra's three while Karnataka forced Hyderabad to follow on though the latter recovered to save the match comfortably, thanks to VVS Laxman's customary hundred. Tamil Nadu however defeated Goa convincingly and, taking five points against Karnataka, took a handsome early lead in the points tally. Hyderabad however bounced back with an innings victory over Kerala while Andhra stayed in the hunt by taking eight points against Goa. However Andhra received a severe blow to their hopes when Karnataka came from behind to register a five wicket victory.

Both Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad stayed in contention while playing a drawn game. Hyderabad then almost made sure of a spot in the knock out phase with a 153-run victory over Goa while it was Tamil Nadu's turn to receive a bit of a jolt when their rain affected match against Andhra meant that their points tally was limited to three. Kerala came strongly into the reckoning by taking five points against Goa and then scoring that shock victory over Karnataka.

When the final round of matches commenced, Andhra had 14 points, Karnataka 16, Kerala 18, Tamil Nadu 21 and Hyderabad 22. Only Goa were out of the reckoning. The only comfort for Karnataka was that their opponents were Goa while Hyderabad were playing Andhra and Tamil Nadu were to clash with Kerala. Still, the air of suspense hovered around the final round. Karnataka however easily got the better of Goa by nine wickets to take their tally to 24 while Kerala missed the bus by netting only three points against Tamil Nadu. Andhra took first innings points against Hyderabad but that was not enough for them to qualify. Tamil Nadu retained the MD Sounderarajan Trophy while Hyderabad finished second and Karnataka third.

As only to be expected, there were several fine performances with bat and ball. Amit Pathak, Andhra's experienced opener was the most successful batsman with 558 runs at an average of 79.71. He got two hundreds with a highest score of 264 against Goa when he and LNP Reddy put on 380 runs for the first wicket. Reddy himself scored 370 runs and not far behind were the Hyderabad duo of Daniel Manohar (358) and A Nandakishore (345). Tamil Nadu left hander S Sriram also displayed good form scoring 333 runs at an average of 83.25. VVS Laxman played only one match, against Karnataka, but that was enough for him to get his customary hundred.

Karnataka's former Indian medium pacer Dodda Ganesh, always a dangerous customer around the domestic circuit, was the leading wicket taker with 26 wickets at 20.50. Another seam bowler NP Singh of Hyderabad ran him close with 23 wickets at 23 apiece. Medium pacers in fact dominated and others of this breed who did well included Karnataka's Mansur Ali Khan (15), Kerala's Tinu Yohannan (19), Andhra's Sahabuddin (15) and the Tamil Nadu duo of Thiru Kumaran (11) and S Mahesh (12). Of the slow bowlers, Tamil Nadu leg spinner WD Balaji Rao was the pick taking 19 wickets at 19 apiece while veteran Venkatpathi Raju showed that he was still a force to reckon with a bag of 17 wickets. Among the newcomers Tamil Nadu's Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan first showed signs of promise in the game against Hyderabad when he picked up four wickets and then slammed a breezy 82.

© CricInfo