The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Muthoot ECC shocks SBT

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Muthoot ECC shocks SBT

KOCHI: Muthoot Ernakulam CC shocked defending champion State Bank of Travancore (Thiruvananthapuram) here on Sunday as the chain of upsets continued in the 21st BPCL Kochi Refinery all-India cricket tournament.

Despite missing its three big stars, Raiphy Vincent Gomez and S. Aneesh with Duleep Trophy assignments and Kerala Ranji captain Sony Cheruvathur with an injury, SBT was expected to get past the quarterfinal hurdle quite comfortably at the BPCL Ground.

And when Muthoot, put in to bat, made only 176 off the given 30 overs, the script appeared to run to order.

SBT was comfortably placed at 100 for two in 17 overs with opener M.P. Sorab in fine touch.

Sorab put on 98 runs for the first wicket with V.A. Jagadeesh. But the arrival of leg-spinner Valeed a little later changed the course of the match and finally, the champion fell short of the target by just three runs.

Ernakulam’s Cordiant Sports Foundation, the first phase winner which is making its debut here, appeared to be inspired by the morning show as it jolted Chennai’s Indian Overseas Bank by six wickets in the evening.

Andhra Ranji players, A.S.K. Varma and Gyaneswar Rao, were the only IOB batmens who could offer some resistance.

Cordiant spinner P. Prasanth, who took four wickets, was the star of the quarterfinal.

The scores: Quarterfinals: Muthoot ECC (Ernakulam) 176 for nine in 30 overs (G.P. Unnikrishnan 41, T.R. Sudheesh five for 31) bt SBT (Thiruvananthapuram) 173 for nine in 30 overs (M.P. Sorab 50, V.A. Jagadeesh 44, Valeed four for 37); IOB (Chennai) 95 in 27.1 overs (P. Prasanth four for 32) lost to Cordiant SF (Ernakulam) 96 for four in 17.2 overs. — Principal Correspondent

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