Bengaluru: Their plot of going for an outright win at home may have gone haywire a day earlier and made worse by the fact that they ended up conceding the first innings lead. But the Karnataka youngsters showed enough spunk to keep the fight going on the penultimate day of their Ranji Trophy Group A contest against Mumbai here.
On Tuesday, at the M. ChinÂnaswamy stadium, Mumbai claiÂmed the first innings honours, takiÂng a slender 18-run lead. Having bowled out Karnataka for 251 in their first essay, Mumbai resuming at 217 for 7 seized the lead through Siddhesh Lad (93) and Javed Khan (48), who missed out on individual landmarks but ensured their team gained a crucial advantage.
Although Mumbai hold the edge, Karnataka, who were made to toil through the day were in for the scrap to set up the possibility of an exciting result. Led by a delightful stroke-filled century by Manish Pandey (119) and an impressive knock by debutant R. Samarth, the home team signed off for the day with 287 for 8 in 74 overs, which gave them a 269-run lead.
While the score may indicate many flaws in Karnataka’s challenge, in reality they did a good job given the duress they were under.
To begin with, their opening bowling pair of R. Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun could not bowl in the morning, both nursing ankle injuries. Vinay who went off the field, post lunch on Day 2 could not bring himself into the attack in the morning, while Mithun did not bowl.
Such was the situation that Vinay almost opened the bowling with KP Appanna, before he was made aware of the fact that the spinner had bowled the last over of the previous day. He juggled with his limited resources even as the young HS Sharath finished with figures of 5 for 57, his third five-for in Ranji Trophy.
Coming out to bat, the hosts could not send out KL Rahul to open as he did not field the previous day and had to come in as No.5. Karun Nair opened the proceedings with Samarth and the former looked ill at ease in his new role. On the other hand, Samarth settled down and batted aggressively.
Mumbai cashed in on Karun’s edginess as he was sent back by Javed Khan, caught by Suryakumar Yadav in the slips. Shreyas Gopal was promoted up the order from No. 7 but the youngster found his stumps sent flying by Javed to the first ball.
In a flash, the party turned Karnataka’s way as Pandey and Samarth upped the tempo, slamming the Mumbai bowlers all around the park. Pandey, who struck a match-winning 161 against Punjab in the previous tie, took a special liking to Shardul Thakur as the Karnataka duo raced at the pace of five-an-over.
Their 133-run third wicket partnership only ended when Kaustubh Pawar had Samarth trapped plumb in the front. Pandey, however, soldiered on, completing his century with a sparkling boundary.
His 147-ball innings, which included 13 shots to the fence and two over it ended as he was caught by Wasim Jaffer in the slips off Vishal Dabholkar. Given the conditions, it will be a trial of fire for the Karnataka bowlers to stop Mumbai from pulling off a victory here.
SCOREBOARD:
Karnataka I innings: 251
Mumbai I innings (O/N 217/7): Siddesh Lad c CM Gautam b HS Sharath 93, Javed Khan c KL Rahul 48, Saurabh Netrawalkar c CM Gautam b HS Sharath 3, Vishal Dabholkar not out 0, Extras 8 (3 lb, 5 b) Total 269 (allout; 89.4 overs)
FoW: 8-241, 9-262
Bowling: R. Vinay Kumar 8-2-16-0; Abhimanyu Mithun 15-2-58-1; HS Sharath 21.4-6-57-5; Stuart Binny15-6-38-0; KP Appanna 14-1-36-0; Shreyas Gopal 15-3-52-3; Manish Pandey 1-0-4-1.
Karnataka II innings: R. Samath lbw K. Pawar 75, Karun Nair c S. Yadav b J. Khan 7, Shreyas Gopal b J. Khan 0, Manish Pandey c W. Jaffer b V. Dabholkar 119, C M Gautam c S. Yadav b S. Thakur 11, Stuart Binny c J. Khan b V. Dabholkar 18, K.L Rahul b Natrawalkar 32, R. Vinay Kumar lbw Natrawalkar 8, KP Appanna 5, HS Sharath 6,
Extras 6 (2 nb, 4 lb), Total: 287 (8 wkts; 74 overs)
FoW: 1-32, 2-32, 3-165, 4-185, 5-222, 6-250, 8-276.
Bowling: Javed Khan 13-0-68-2, Saurabh Natrawalkar 14-4-42-2, Vishal Dabholkar 8-0-36-0; Shardul Thakur 6-0-42-0; Kaustubh Pawar 8-4-11-1, Suryakumar Yadav 4-0-12-0.
