India’s Test opener Murali Vijay and fledging all-rounder Baba Aparajith scored fluent nineties as Tamil Nadu thumped Hyderabad by 125 runs in the South Zone leg of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Sunday.
Put into bat, Tamil Nadu suffered an early blow as Alfred Absolem packed off Umashankar Sushil for 10. But that was Hyderabad mustered till the 30th overs as Vijay and Aparajith went about resurrecting the innings with some aggressive batting.
Both tore into the bowlers and forged a 142-run partnership in a little under 26 overs. Vijay scored a run-a-ball 90, laced with six boundaries and three sixes.
Aparajith too missed out on his century, but Tamil Nadu’s momentum hardly flagged as Srikkanth Anirudha and Vijay Shankar blasted 72 runs in six overs to take them to 280 in 45 overs.
In reply, Hyderabad found the asking rate steep and regular strikes checked their progress. Lakshmipathy Balaji and Rahil Shah took three wickets each as they bundled out Hyderabad for a meagre 155 in 35.5 overs.
Meanwhile, a dazzling run-a-ball 104 by Robin Uthappa and a five-wicket haul by Vinay Kumar saw Karnataka crush Kerala by 104 runs. Kerala won the toss and put Karnataka into bat. But Uthappa made them rue their decision in quick time as he went after the bowling from the word go. KL Rahul and Karun Nair chipped in with half-centuries and propelled them to 317 for five. Kerala’s reply was meek, with only Rohan Prem (103) some fight.
In another match, Andhra downed Goa by four wickets, thanks to Ricky Bhui’s hundred and Prasanth’s 90.
Brief scores: South Zone: Tamil Nadu 280/4 in 45 overs (Aparajith 91, Vijay 90) bt Hyderabad 155 all out in 35.5 overs (Balaji 3/27, Shah 3/32) by 125 runs.
Karnataka 317/5 in 50 overs (Uthappa 104, Nair 60, Rahul 51) bt Kerala 213 all out 46.2 overs (Prem 103; Vinay Kumar 5/34) by 104 runs.
Goa 268/6 in 50 overs (Kamat 65, Gadekar 61) lost to Andhra 272/6 in 48.4 overs (Bhui 103 no, Prasanth 90; Yadav 3/45) by four wickets
West Zone: Saurashtra 244/7 in 50 overs (Vasavada 99 no, Jackson 53; Kulkarni 3/49) lost to Mumbai 248/5 in 48.3 overs (Marathe 88, Abdulla 55) by five wickets.