Karnataka register easy win over Andhra

Mayank Agarwal and Lokesh Rahul scored an unbeaten half century each to power Karnataka to a nine-wicket win over Andhra Pradesh in their last South Zone league match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy here today.
Agarwal (75 not out off 60 balls) and Rahul (60 not out off 48 balls) shared unbroken 135 runs for the second wicket to help Karnataka chased down the 131-run target with 11 balls to spare.
Karnataka, however, lost opener Manish Pandey for nought in the very first over of their innings.
But Agarwal and Rahul took up the gauntlet and ensured an easy win for Karnataka, who finished at 136 for six.

Agarwal struck nine boundaries during his unbeaten knock while Rahul clobbered three fours and two sixes.
Andhra employed six bowlers, but none could trouble the Agarwal-Rahul duo with Syed Shahabuddin picking up the lone Karnataka wicket to fall in the form of Manish Pandey.

Earlier, sent into bat, Andhra lost wickets at regular intervals to be bowled out for 130.
Srikar Bharat (25), Bodapati Sumanth (30) and Andimani Pradeep (29) all made good starts but failed to capitalise.
R Vinay Kumar was the pick of Karnataka bowlers, bagging three wickets for 15 runs while Stuart Binny (2/35) and Pandey (2/20) grabbed two wickets each.

From the South Zone leg, Karnataka and Kerala have stormed into the knockout stage of the tournament to be held at Ranchi.
Kerala defeated Goa by 38 runs in their last match of the leg.
Batting first, Kerala rode on V A Jagadeesh's 53-ball 60, which included four boundaries and a six, to post a fighting 146 for nine.
In rely, Goa were bowled out for 108 all out in 19.3 overs.
In another South Zone encounter, Hyderabad defeated Tamil Nadu by eight runs.
After posting a challenging 167 foe seven, Hyderabad restricted Tamil Nadu to 159 for nine.