Left-arm spinners, Sunil Joshi (2 -8) and K P Appanna (4-8) struck in tandem to help defending champions Karnataka crush Kerala by 132 runs in the fourth round-robin match of the South Zone Ranji Trophy limited overs cricket championship for K Subbaiah Pillai trophy here on Saturday.

Chasing a tricky target of 248, Kerala batsmen fell to the guiles of the left-arm spinners and dramatically collapsed from a steady 100 for three in 19.4 overs to 115 all out in 26.1 overs.

Kerala lost their last seven wickets for 15 runs in 6.3 overs. Karnataka gained five points from the lop-sided encounter, including a bonus point. Earlier, batting first Karnataka made 247 in 49.2 overs with C M Goutham top scoring with 76 (77 balls, 12x4).

Deepak Chougule 30 (64 balls, 2x4), C Raghu (42, 63 balls, 1x4), wicket-keeper Devraj Patil (40, 33 balls, 4x4) and Amit Verma (31, 33 balls, 2x4) all got starts but failed to build up a big score. For Kerala, left-arm medium pacer Prashant Parameswaran claimed six wickets.

The last league match between Karnataka and last year’s runner-up Tamil Nadu on Sunday, will virtually be the final as the outcome would decide the champion.

TN score

Meanwhile, centuries from M Vijay (100) and Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan (111) helped Tamil Nadu maintain their winning streak as they beat Andhra  by five wickets in a high-scoring match. Batting first, Andhra posted a healthy 292 all out in 48.3 overs with ASK Verma top scoring with 75. Tamil Nadu overhauled the target easily with 7.3 overs to spare.

score board

KARNATAKA: Chipli c Anil Kumar b Prashanth 7; Goutham b Rohan Prem 76; Chougule c  Vinan b Srikumar nair  30; C Raghu b Prashanth 42; Devraj Patil b Anil Kumar  40; Amit Verma b Prashanth 31; B Akhil  c Manikantan b Tinu Yohanan 9; Vinaykumar c Vinan b  Prashanth 2; Sunil Joshi  lbw  Prasanth 0; Aditya Sagar c&b Prashanth 3; K P Appanna (not out ) 1; Extras (LB-1, W-5) six; Total (all out in 49.2 overs) 247.
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-97, 3-123, 4-182, 5-227, 6-234, 7-236, 8-236, 9-246.
Bowling: Tinu Yohanan 9-2-42-1, Prashanth 9.2-0-35-6, Anil Kumar 10-0-43-1, K J Rakesh  5-0-30-0, Krishna Chandran 3-0-17-0, Srikumar Nair 5-0-30-1, Rohan Prem 5-0-29-1, Raiphi V.Gomez 3-0-20-0.

KERALA: Gomez c Chougule b Aditya Sagar 30; Antony b C Raghu 20; Rohan Prem c Akhil b Vinaykumar 1; Srikumar Nair c Vinaykumar b Appanna 37; Krishna Chandran c Vinaykumar b Appanna 4; Manikantan c Raghu b Joshi 6; K J Rakesh b Appanna 5; Vinan c Akhil b Joshi  0; Anil Kumar c Chipli b Appanna 1; Tinu Yohanan c Chougule b Appanna 0; Prashanth (not out) 0; Extras: (P-5, B-1, W-5) 11; Total (all out in 26.1 overs) 115.
Fall of wickets: 1-47, 2-50, 3-97, 4-100, 5-109, 6-109, 7-114, 8-115, 9-115.
Bowling: Vinaykumar 6-0-35-1, Aditya Sagar 6-0-40-1, B Akhil 3-0-11-0, Raghu 4-1-7-1, Sunil Joshi 4.1-1-8-2,  K P Appanna 3-0-8-4.
Other scores:
Hyderabad: 284/8 in 50 overs (S Anoop Pai 102, Ronald Rodrigues 40, Arjun Yadav 54, Abhinav Kumar 46;  S Dhuri 2-34, S Jakati 2-47) bt Goa: 222 all out in 47.2 overs (Swapnil Asnodkar 64, Ajay Ratra 63; Mohammad Shakeer 4-52, Ravi Teja 3-24, Anoop Pai 1-14).
Andhra: 292 all out in 48.3 overs (H Vatekar 71, ASK Verma 75, AG Pradeep 73; Sivakumar 2-47, Prasanna 2-33) lt to Tamil Nadu: 295/5 in 42.3 overs (M Vijay 100, Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan 111; Kalyan Kumar 2-33).