CHENNAI: A Badrinath hit an unbeaten 90 as Tamil Nadu drew their south zone Vijay Merchant Trophy U-16 tournament match against Kerala on Saturday, at Krishnagiri Stadium in Wayanad. The visitors were 184/6 in 64 overs when bad light stopped play on the third day. The match was subsequently called off. Both teams got a point each.
Brief scores: Kerala 237 in 93.3 ovs drew with Tamil Nadu 184/6 in 64 ovs (A Badrinath 90 n.o; Vijay Viswanath 3/41). Points: Tamil Nadu: 1, Kerala 1.
U-23 team loses to Gujarat
Riding on Urvil Patel’s 94, Gujarat defeated Tamil Nadu by 13 runs in their BCCI men’s under-23 Elite Group A one-dayer, in Mysuru.Brief scores: Gujarat 260 in 50 ovs (Urvil Patel 94, Manan Hingrajia 37, Kshitij Patel 57, H Trilok Nag 4/60) bt Tamil Nadu 247 in 48.1 ovs (Pradosh Ranjan Paul 69, RS Jaganath Sinivas 56 n.o; Yash Gardharia 3/31, Siddharth Desai 3/37).
Arjun in sole lead
International Master Arjun Kalyan of Chennai emerged sole leader with a perfect score of six points from six rounds in the 1st Velammal Vidyalaya FIDE rated rapid chess tournament organised by Rooks and Knights Chess Academy in commemoration of the 73rd Founders Day of the Velammal Vidyalaya here on Saturday.
Three players — Grandmaster V Vishnu Prasanna of Chennai, IM elect VS Rathanvel of Coimbatore and CM Nikhil Magizhan of Chennai — are trailing behind Arjun by half a point. In the final round of the day, Arjun shocked former national champion and Grandmaster Karthikeyan Murali of PSPB with a comfortable win.
Rathanvel and Nikhi Magizhan drew their game on the second board and Vishnu Prasanna got the better of Woman Grandmaster R Vaishali on the third board.
Top seed and national champion Aravindh Chithambaram had to concede two draws as he lost a valuable point to remain on the joint third rank. World under-18 champion R Praggnanadhaa has scored 4.5 points from six outings. He lost to Vishnu and managed a draw against Gireman Ja of Coimbatore.