Chennai, Feb 10 (IANS) The big three of South Zone — Karnataka, Hyderabad and hosts Tamil Nadu — came through their respective opening fixtures in the Subbaiah Pillai trophy one-day cricket tournament here Wednesday.
An unbeaten 98-ball 106 (10×4, 4×6) by Arun Karthik powered an under-strength Tamil Nadu to a commanding eight-wicket win against Kerala while holders Karnataka swept past Goa by five wickets and Hyderabad edged past Andhra by two wickets.

The Kerala batsmen appeared all at sea as seamer Chandrasekar Ganapathy (3-42) caused early damage as the visitors were bundled out for 189 in the 50th over. Tamil Nadu, without Subramaniam Badrinath, Dinesh Karthik and Murali Vijay, then knocked off the runs in 36 overs with Arun Karthik leading the way.

Karthik came in at a crucial juncture after the hosts lost opener Anirudha Srikkanth cheaply. Along with Abhinav Mukund (53), Karthik added 149 runs for the second wicket as Tamil Nadu cruised home.

Kerala new ball bowler S. Sreesanth, recalled to the Indian Test team, was under scrutiny as he was playing his first competitive fixture since recovering from a hamstring injury during the recent tour of Bangladesh. He sent down eight overs for 29 runs in a spell that was essentially a warm-up ahead of the second Test against South Africa in Kolkata.

Karnataka were well served by their powerful batting line-up that included Manish Pandey (95, 69b, 5×4, 5×6), Ganesh Satish (100, 91b, 13×4, 2×6) and Robin Uthappa (51, 7×4, 1×6) as they overhauled Goa’s total of 286 for nine in the 40th over.

Satish and Pandey put on 173 runs off just 137 balls for the fourth wicket as the Goan bowling wilted under the onslaught.

Earlier, Goa put up what appeared to be a fighting total as S. Sriram (63), Ajay Ratra (45) and Saurabh Bandekar (60) held the innings together despite crucial strikes by left-arm spinner K.P. Appanna who came away with a haul of five for 56.

Elsewhere, Andhra all but pulled off a thrilling win before going down in the 49th over after having Hyderabad on the ropes. Crucial half-centuries by Ravi Teja (67) and Anirudh Singh (58) proved cornerstones of Hyderabad’s successful chase of Andhra’s total of 201 for eight.

Hyderabad were tottering at two for eight before Teja and Singh got together in a rescue partnership of 120 runs for the third wicket before Amol Shinde came up with a crucial 35 not out to take his team over the finish line with eight balls to spare.

Brief scores:

Andhra 201 for 8 in 50 overs (D Shiva Kumar 67, Lenin 39, Alfred Absolom 3 for 53) lost to Hyderabad 203 for 8 in 48.4 overs (Ravi Teja 67, Anirudh Singh 58, Amol Shinde 35 not out, D Shiva Kumar 3 for 48) by two wickets.

Goa 286 for 9 in 50 overs (S Sriram 63, Ajay Ratra 45, Saurabh Bandekar 60, KP Appanna 5 for 56) lost to Karnataka 287 for 5 in 39.2 overs (Manish Pandey 95, Ganesh Satish 100, Robin Uthappa 51) by 5 wickets.

Kerala 189 all out in 49.2 overs (RM Fernandez 38, RV Gomez 30, Chandrasekar Ganapathy 3 for 42) lost to Tamil Nadu 192 for 2 in 36 overs (Abhinav Mukund 53, Arun Karthik 106 not out) by 8 wickets.