A gallant unbeaten 100 by BMV Uthappa followed by a mesmeric spell of four for eight from two overs by AT Rayudu helped South Zone defeat Combined XI by three runs in an inconsequential group B match in the inter-academy cricket tournament at Bangalore on Saturday.

Play started only at 12.28 pm because of rain. Put in to bat, South Zone scored 180 for nine in the allotted 27 overs. The highlight was Uthappa's knock. Coming in after four wickets had fallen for 34, he stayed on till the end, facing just 62 balls and hitting nine fours and five sixes. With N Reddy (25), Uthappa added 90 runs off 10.2 overs for the seventh wicket after six wickets had gone down for 50.

Combined XI with valuable contributions from skipper SM Dholpure (32), HTS Rao (48), Sushil Kumar (30) and SV Lazarus (24) seemed to be headed for victory at 155 for three after 23 overs. But Rayudu's spell and a couple of run outs saw Combined XI restricted to 177 for nine in 27 overs.

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