The Twenty20 Syed Mushtaq Ali clash in Vizag on Thursday between Karnataka and Hyderabad took a controversial turn after the umpires added two runs to the former’s tally at the end of the innings, and ultimately, the home team by the same margin.

The decision was taken retrospectively during the innings break after the umpires were informed of an error during the second over of the match. Hyderabad player Mehdi Hasan touched the boundary rope while fielding at deep mid-wicket, but the onfield umpires did not check with the third umpire. Replays though showed that Hasan had made contact with the rope while retrieving the ball.

When made aware of this, the officials decided to add the runs to Karnataka’s tally at the end of their batting effort, after Karnataka’s captain Vinay Kumar took it up. The call irked Hyderabad captain Ambati Rayudu, Cricbuzz reported.

As fate would have it, Hyderabad lost a thrilling encounter by two runs as they ended up with 203/9 while chasing the revised total of 205/5.

At the end of the game, Rayudu and his teammates stood in the field demanding a “super over” even as the officials adjudged Karnataka as the winners.

The “protest” lasted for a considerable time and forced the subsequent contest between Andhra and Kerala to be restricted to 13-overs a side.

“There was some confusion in the middle at the start of our innings,” Rayudu was quoted as saying by the website. “What I went and told the umpire was ‘sir you cannot change the score, we are batting for 204 as our target’. That is exactly what I told him and he said ‘we’ll see it at the end, let the match start.”

The match was stopped again for nine minutes, Rayudu said as the officials deliberated whether to revise the total.

The Hyderabad skipper said the match should not have been halted after the target was declared. The team maintained its position and went about the chase with a target of 204 in mind. Rayudu insisted that the team did not protest, but had gone into the field after the end of their innings in preparation for a super over as they felt the scores were equal.

The Karnataka management, meanwhile, said that after watching television replays, they had intimated the third umpire, but the score was not immediately revised due to an alleged miscommunication between the onfield umpire and the scorers, the report stated.

This incident brought back memories of the 1987 World Cup, when, India lost to Australia by a run after confusion over the exact total needed to be chased.

Dean Jones had appeared to have cleared the fence, but the umpire signalled a boundary. The score was revised during the innings-break, after the Australia team management informed the the umpires about the incident. India skipper Kapil Dev had then agreed to follow the target that would reflect on the scoreboard.

Brief scores

  • Karnataka 205/5 (Karun Nair 77, K Gowtham 57) vs Hyderabad 203/9 (PA Reddy 70, BP Sandeep 34; S Binny 3/29).
  • Maharashtra 89 all out (Rahul Tripathi 21; Akash Parkar 3/22) lost to Mumbai 92/3 (Aditya Tare 42 not out, Siddesh Lad 25, JP Zope 1/14).
  • Saurashtra 131 all out (Jaydev Unadkat 33, Robin Uthappa 29; Atit Sheth 2/18) lost to Baroda 132/2 (Kedar Devdhar 62 not out, Deepak Hooda 32 not out; Chirag Jani 1/17).  

Big win for Mumbai

Mumbai registered a thumping seven-wicket win over arch rivals Maharashtra in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 West Zone League match.

For Mumbai, medium pacer Akash Parkar starred with the ball as he picked up three wickets to help his side bundle out Maharashtra for a meagre 89.

For Maharashtra, except opener Rahul Tripathi and Vijay Zol (both 21 runs in 16 balls), no other batsman was able to make a mark and steer the team out of trouble.

The experienced Siddhesh Lad, who was the team’s crisis man in the Ranji Trophy this year, chipped in with a valuable 25 off 15 balls and steadied their ship after the side was tottering at 17 for 2.
In the second match of the day, Baroda defeated Saurashtra by 8 wickets to bag four points.
Electing to bat, Saurashtra were all out for 131 in 19.5 overs as Baroda bowlers wrecked havoc.

Atit Sheth was the pick of the bowlers as he grabbed 2 wickets conceding 18 runs. For Saurashtra, barring skipper Jaydev Unadkat (33 off 26 balls) and wicket-keeper Robin Uthappa (29 off 19 balls), others made a beeline to the pavillion.

Tamil Nadu continue good form

Tamil Nadu defeated Goa by 25 runs to register their third straight win in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 South Zone tournament on Thursday.

Dinesh Karthik (56) scored his third half-century on the trot to star with the bat again as Tamil Nadu posted 155 for 5 in its quota of 50 overs before restricting Goa to 130 for 7.

Skipper Vijay Shankar returned to the side after missing the first two games owing to injury concerns, but couldn’t do much with the bat, falling for four to Amogh Desai.

Electing to bat after winning the toss, Tamil Nadu lost M S Washington Sundar (14), not before he had hit two boundaries and a six.

Karthik, who has been in superb form, got into the act quickly and hit shots all round the wicket. He smashed six fours and a sixer before falling in the 15th over.

Though Abhinav Mukund (12) and Shankar fell in quick succession, Karthik found an able partner in B Aparajith (26). The two added 54 runs in just about seven overs.

Some lusty blows by R Sanjay Yadav (28 not out, 20 balls, 1X4, 2X6) and N Jagadeesan (10 not out, 1X6) helped swell the total to 155.

Goa’s chase was stifled by the loss of wickets at regular intervals with none of the batsmen being able to get a big score. Skipper Sagun Kamat made the top-score of 41 but tight bowling by the Tamil Nadu bowlers made things difficult.

Leg-spinner M Ashwin, who kept things tight in the middle and Washington, picked up two wickets each while left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore bowled just one over to for his solitary wicket. Medium-pacers K Vignesh and Athisayaraj Davidson got a wicket apiece.

Brief scores:

Tamil Nadu 155 for 5 in 20 overs (Dinesh Karthik 56, Sanjay Yadav 28 not out, Amogh Desai 3 for 22) beat Goa 130 for 7 in 20 overs (Sagun Kamat 41, M Ashwin 2 for 22, Washington Sundar 2 for 20).

Points: TN: 4; Goa: 0.

Karnataka 205 for 5 in 20 overs (Karun Nair 77, K Gowtham 57, Ravi Kiran 2 for 33) beat Hyderabad 203 for 9 in 20 overs (Akshath Reddy 70, Tanmay Agarwal 38, Bavanaka Sandeep 34, Stuart Binny 3 for 29).

Points: Karnataka: 4; Hyderabad: 0.

Kerala 120 all out in 12 overs (Vishnu Vinod 45, Sanju Samson 32, M Harishankar Reddy 4 for 2, Bandaru Ayyappa 3 for 32) lost to Andhra 126 for 4 in 13 overs (Ashwin Hebbar 64, G H Vihari 25, Basil Thampi 2 for 35). Points: Andhra: 4; Kerala: 0.