Laxman does the star turn for Airlines

August 18: V V S Laxman's unbeaten 205 piloted Indian Airlines home against TNCA XI in the MRF-Buchibabu cricket tournament at the SPIC-Y...

August 18: V V S Laxman’s unbeaten 205 piloted Indian Airlines home against TNCA XI in the MRF-Buchibabu cricket tournament at the SPIC-YMCA ground on Wednesday.

On the final day, IA needed to make 355 off 117 overs to better TNCA’s run-rate of 3.02. They did that in style by knocking off the runs in 101.3 overs.

Airlines, with a score of 386 for six and a quotient of 3.29, advanced to the quarter-finals.

Laxman stay at the crease for the whole day and his century came off 188 balls with 14 fours. The second one was much quicker, coming off just 94 balls with another 14 fours. His partnership with Onkar Singh (47) was worth 120 runs for the second wicket, while that for the fourth wicket with Ishan Ganda (43) yielded 106 runs.

Saravanan’s ton in vain:Districts XI lost in the pursuit of making the quarter-finals against IOB at the AC Tech ground.

Skipper Vasanth Saravanan’s knock and astute bowling by left-arm bowler P Muthupandian (6-68) almost won the day for Districts but fell shy of the target by 16 runs.

Districts XI rallied well to restrict the opponents to 193 in their second essay. The target of 255 in 54 overs looked attainable but it was just not to be.

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The day started well for Muthupandian, who sent back IOB’s Sreedharan and K Sravanan. The Kanchipuram lad accounted for three more wickets to finish with 27-10-68-6 for a match haul of 8-129. Off-spinner S R Ganesh Kumar (3-56) came good to swell his match figures to 7-118.

IOB owed to Sreekumar Nair (87, 155b, 13×4, 1×6) and Anantha (38, 46b, 5×4, 1×6) in their second innings.

Brief scores:TNCA 432 in 143 overs (run quotient 3.02) lost to IA 386-6 in 117 overs (run quotient 3.29) (V V S Laxman 205 not out, Onkar Singh 47, Ishan Ganda 43, Fazal Khaleel 34, Rajat Bhatia 3-59).

IOB 246 and 193 in 93 overs (Sreekumar Nair 87, K N Ananthapadmanabhan 38, P Muthupandian 6-68, S R Ganesh Kumar 3-56) drew District XI 185 and 239-9 in 54 overs (Vasanth Saravanan 110, K Nazar 29 not out, K N Ananthapadmanabhan 4-61).