Tamil Nadu regain Sounderarajan Trophy

With the South Zone Ranji Trophy match between Karnataka and Hyderabad ending in a tame draw at the Gymkhana ground in Secundarabad on Sunday, Tamil Nadu regained the MD Sounderarajan Trophy, the symbol of supremacy in the zone. Tamil Nadu finished with 31 points. Karnataka and Hyderabad who both had 24 points at the start of the match, finished with 27 and 29 points respectively. It was the second title triumph in a week for Tamil Nadu. Only a few days before, they had won the Subbiah Pillai Trophy for the one day South Zone championship. The triumph also clinched a place for Tamil Nadu in next year's Wills Trophy tournament

Chasing a difficult target of 356, Karnataka, the reigning Ranji Trophy champions, were never really in with a chance. But they made sure of preventing Hyderabad from registering an outright victory that would have given them the trophy. The top order performed commendably with openers Arun Kumar (26) and Mithun Beerala (46) putting on 49 runs. Then Rowland Barrington (64) and skipper Sujith Somasundar (55 not out) consolidated with a third wicket partnership of 92 runs off 43.4 overs. Barrington faced 165 balls and hit three of them to the ropes. NP Singh dismissed Barrington and A Vijay in the same over but Somasundar and VST Naidu (31 not out) steered Karnataka to a comfortable draw with an unbeaten fifth wicket partnership of 53 from 8.1 overs. Somasundar faced 153 balls and hit seven of them to the fence. Naidu's bright knock was compiled off just 29 balls and he hit seven fours. Karnataka were 239 for four when stumps were finally drawn.