The New Zealand A, Mumbai Cricket Association XI match promised to be a close one. And by god, close it was...

When New Zealand A off-spinner Glen Sulzberger dismissed centurion Nilesh Patwardhan at the Guru Nanak grounds on Saturday afternoon all that separated the two teams was 10 runs. But that minor first innings lead was enough to ensure the New Zealanders a berth in the Buchi Babu quarter-finals. They now take on MRF at the MAC A grounds on August 20, 21 and 22.

Patwardhan, who made 134 off 351 balls with 13 fours, had earlier ploughed a lonely furrow while guiding Mumbai, 198 for four overnight, to 319. His exciting 46-run partnership with last man Nilesh Kulkarni brought the Mumbai team frighteningly close to overhauling the New Zealand target.

The other batsmen could only play minor hands. India discard Ajit Agarkar, who incidentally went wicketless in the match, made 20 off 65 balls with three fours before being stumped off a Paul Wiseman delivery. Mr. Extras with a rather healthy 40 was the second highest scorer. For New Zealand, off-spinners - Paul Wiseman and Sulzbeger - who both claimed three wickets each were the successful bowlers.

Mark Richardson and Lou Vincent ensured that the New Zealand second innings was not a meaningless exercise - at least for the two of them. While Richardson took his time to compile 43, Vincent made an unbeaten 51 off 93 balls with six fours and one six. In all New Zealand made 114 for two in their second essay.

* Kumble, Johnson steer KSCA XI to quarterfinals

Anil Kumble and David Johnson brought about a sharp Tamil Nadu Cricket Association XI collapse to lead Karnataka State Cricket Association to the quarterfinals of the MRF Buchi Babu invitation cricket tournament at the MA Chidambaram stadium on Saturday.

When play resumed this morning, the match was interestingly poised with TNCA XI 248 for three in reply to KSCA's 385. All seemed set for a battle royale for the all important first innings lead. But this never came about. Very early in the day, Johnson, a former India paceman, dismissed Hemant Kumar. The left hander, 88 overnight, was out after adding only five runs. Johnson then struck a vital blow by having skipper Robin Singh caught by wicketkeeper RC Shanbal for ten. In the next over, Kumble practically settled the issue by bowling Sridharan Sarath for 12 and TNCA, at 272 for six, suddenly faced an uphill task.

The collapse continued with the tail offering little resistance. Johnson dismissed TR Arasu and then Kumble, in quick succession got rid of Gokulakrishnan, Ramdoss and Dhandapani to terminate the home team's innings at 300. Kumble's figures on Saturday were 11.3-4-17-4 and he finished with five for 57. Johnson ended with three for 45.

The rest of the match was a formality. Openers Mithun Beerala (57) and Rowland Barrington (36) got some good batting practice in sharing a partnership of 79 runs off 28.5 overs. Kumble declared the innings at 151 for three after the fifth mandatory over at which point the two captains agreed to call off play.

* MRF reign supreme over HCA, qualify for quarterfinal

MRF stormed into the quarterfinal of the MRF Buchi Babu invitation cricket tournament by getting the better of Hyderabad Cricket Association by virtue of first innings lead in their first round tie at the Southern Railway Stadium in Chennai on Saturday.

Resuming on their overnight score of 448/8, MRF went on to finish their first innings at 490 all out in 131.4 overs. MR Shrinivas remained unbeaten on 28, while Dinesh Kaarthick made 24. Noel David picked up the last three wickets of the innings to finish with the figures of 29.4-2-83-4.

HCA had a mountain to climb; they had to score 234 runs to avoid an innings defeat. Aravind Shetty (72) and skipper Nandakishore (71) added 147 runs for the first wicket. Aashish Kapoor went on to rip wickets out claiming five wickets giving away 63 runs. Arjun Yadav (33) and Noel David (49) were the only batsmen to put up a resistance in the middle order as HCA finished the day on 281/8 off 72 overs. Shivaji Yadav with a dogged 17 off 35 balls and Vishnuvardhan (7 off 30 balls) held on to the end. Noel David's knock literally pulled HCA out of jail as MRF were looking at a possible outright win. David hit nine fours and a six in his 55 ball innings before falling to Babloo Kumar, just one run short of a half century.

Aashish Kapoor plucked out four wickets in the space of 22 balls conceding just seven runs to leave HCA at a precarious 160/5 in the 46th over, still needing 74 runs to make MRF bat again. Arjun Yadav and David added 76 runs for the sixth wicket, taking HCA to 236. The match was called off after ten mandatory overs. Kapoor had a good match picking up 9 wickets for 131 runs and played a good hand in taking MRF to the quarterfinals.

* Indian Airlines in precarious position against Jolly Rovers

On a balmy day with almost no wind, Jolly Rovers took their overnight score of 171/3 on to 308 all out, having dismissed Indian Airlines for a paltry 94 in the first innings. In their second essay too, the Airlines team did not find the wicket at the Chemplast-IIT Stadium much to their liking and were somewhat precariously poised at 148/5 in 36 overs on the second day of the MRF Buchi Babu invitation cricket tournament tie on Saturday.

S Badrinath, overnight on 84, added just one run to his score before being bowled by Abdul Qayum. Mediumpacer Vineet Jain got rid of J Hariesh (65, 142 balls, 8 fours) and at 228/5 there was some chance that the Airlines side could restrict the damage. A late in the order 69 off just 52 balls from Ram Kumar at number nine saw the Chennai side reach 358. Ram Kumar struck an amazing 14 boundaries in his innings.

Down by 264 runs in the first innings, there was little hope of success for the Airlines side. Openers Ravneet Rickey and Munish Sharma however, went hammer and tongs at the Jolly Rovers attack. The pair, who have been batting together from the time India won the Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka struck nine boundaries between them. Neither Ricky (20) nor Sharma (23) could stay at the wicket long enough, despite their good scoring rate. Ishan Ganda perished for 21, Shafiq Khan made one and the Airlines team were in all manner of trouble at 70/4. However, attacking Karnataka opener J Arun Kumar with an unbeaten 44 (51 balls, 6 fours, 1 six) steadied the ship. Southpaw Sukhwinder Singh (30) and Arun Kumar took on the spinners well, lofting the ball over the infield with ease.

With just two overs left to be bowled, play was called off due to bad light. L Balaji with two wickets in the innings thus far to add to his six first innings wickets was operating when play was called off. Jolly Rovers skipper Ajay Kudua was reluctant to take his strike bowler off while Vijay Dahiya and Arun Kumar insisted that light was not good enough, and play was called off.

* CAB qualify on first innings lead

Cricket Association of Bengal marched into the quarterfinals of the MRF Buchi Babu invitation cricket tournament by getting better of Oil and Natural Gas Commission in the first round tie played at Sri Ramachandra Medical College Ground in Chennai on Saturday. CAB qualified on the basis of the first innings lead as the match petered out to a draw.

ONGC resumed at 165/1 in their second innings, 39 runs in arrears. Sandeep Sharma completed his century and then went on a leather hunt. Sharma was finally caught by Rohan Gavaskar at mid-wicket off the bowling of Sourashish Lahiri after making 128 runs off 88 balls, which included half a dozen sixes and 13 boundaries. The second wicket partnership between Sharma and Mithun Minhas yielded 146 runs off just 15.5 overs.

Lahiri struck a killer blow in the same over removing the explosive Virender Shewag for a duck, caught by Gavaskar at mid-wicket. ONGC declared their second innings at 448/5 after the 51st over. The deluge of runs had CAB bowlers at the mercy of the batsmen. Minhas was particularly harsh as he went about smashing runs to all parts of the field. He struck five sixes and ten fours in making 163 explosive runs off just 122 balls. Rizwan Shamshad remained unbeaten on 53 off 45 balls, striking four boundaries. Minhas and Shamshad added 136 runs in 15.4 overs for the unbeaten sixth wicket.

Set a target of 245 runs for an outright win, CAB never gave it a chase. They finished the day at 172/3 off 47 overs and qualified for the next stage. Opening batsman Amitava Chakravarty remained unbeaten on 59 off 139 balls, which included nine boundaries.

Rohan Gavaskar played an attractive knock of 77 off 90 balls. He struck two sixes and ten boundaries before being caught by Shewag at slip off the bowling of Sarandeep Singh. Shewag took all three catches off the bowling of Sarandeep Singh who finished with the figures of 17-3-41-3.

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