Bangalore: Tamil Nadu dethroned Karnataka to lift the South Zone One-day tournament for the Subbaiah Pillai Trophy on Wednesday. Tamil Nadu tallied 19 points from its five league engagements as against 18 by Karnataka, denying the host, which had won the last two editions at Chennai and Vishakapatnam, a hat-trick. Going into the final league encounter on Wednesday, both Tamil Nadu And Karnataka had tallied an identical 14 points though the latter lead the points table by the virtue of its net run rate being higher than the eventual winner's. But Wednesday was Tamil Nadu's day as its team drubbed Andhra by seven wickets and secured five points, including a bonus one, while Karnataka scraped through against Goa by one wicket and gained four points to be tied at the post.

Sent into bat, Andhra made 243 for eight in 50 overs with Y Venugopal Rao top scoring with 107, ably supported by Fayaz Ahmed, who made 94. For Tamil Nadu, L Balaji took five wickets for 36 runs. In reply, Tamil Nadu batsmen rattled up the runs in 34 overs as it raced to gain that bonus point. The side was propelled by an unbeaten, quick-fire110 by S Sriram who hit 15 fours in an 84-ball knock. S Ramesh made 89 from an equal number deliveries with 14 hits to the fence. Karnataka disappointed on Wednesday but managed a narrow victory. Sending Goa to bat first, the host dismissed its opponents for 206 all out in 47.3 overs with D Ganesh (3 for 44) and Sunil Joshi (3 for 21) sharing the spoils. Unfinished last wicket partnership between C Raghu (27 not out) and B K Venkatesh Prasad (10 not out) after the team was reduced to 186 for the loss of nine wickets saved Karnataka the blushes. Sandeep Dahad took four wickets for 46 runs for Goa, which ended up in the fourth position in the tournament with 10 points behind Hyderabad, who tallied 13 points. In the other match of the day, Kerala surprised Hyderabad with a 45 run victory and took the fifth spot in the tournament, where six teams vied for honours. Fuelled by Sujith Somasundar (124) and Hemanth Kumar (66), Kerala piled up 292 all out in 50 overs but Hyderabad faltered in its reply with D Vinay Kumar's knock of 98 and I Ibrahim Khaleel's 59 in vain.

Tags: cricket, bangalore, tamil nadu, karnataka, south zone, subbaiah pillai trophy, chennai, vishakapatnam, goa.