Bengaluru: Every time Karnataka has been in a difficult spot this Ranji Trophy season, it has managed to find someone to bail them out. It is the trait of a champion team. On a sunny Saturday, Vinay Kumar’s side found their man Friday in the young Shreyas Gopal as they ensured there would be no repeat of a last-eight heartbreak like last year.
Cheered on by a strong home crowd, Karnataka stormed to 92-run win over Uttar Pradesh, with a day to spare at the M Chinnaswamy stadium. Poised overnight on 55 for one in pursuit of 333, Uttar Pradesh appeared set to make a fist of it. Instead, it was all bluff and bluster as they unravelled in quick time, save for the seventh wicket partnership between Ekalvya Dwivedi and Piyush Chawla.
To be fair though, the visitors were in the hunt in patches, but Shreyas chipped away at their line-up, eventually knocking the stuffing out of RP Singh’s side with a bag of 5/59. UP were bowled out for 240 in 65.3 overs, shortly before tea.
Karnataka, six-time champions, will meet Punjab in the semifinals at Mohali from January 18-22 while UP return home to ponder what could have been.
SCOREBOARD
Karnataka (Ist innings): 349
Uttar Pradesh (Ist innings): 221/9 decl.
Karnataka (2nd innings): 204
Uttar Pradesh (2nd innings): Tanmay Srivastava c M. Pandey b Vinay Kumar 44, Ali Murtaza b S. Gopal 29, Mohd. Kaif c Vinay b A. Mithun 0, Prashant Gupta c CM Gautam b S. Gopal 19, Parvinder Singh b Mithun 8, Eklavya Dwivedi c Vinay b A. Mithun 33, Piyush Chawla c Karun Nair b S. Gopal 44, Amit Mishra c CM Gautam b S. Gopal 4, Ankit Rajpoot b Vinay 14, RP Singh (not out) 3. Extras (b 8, lb 9, nb 2) 19. Total (in 65.3 overs) 240.
FoW: 2-85, 3-86, 4-125, 5-134, 6-138, 7-208, 8-213, 9-222
Bowling: Mithun 20-3-71-3; Vinay 21.3-4-72-2; Shreyas 16-1-59-5; Abrar 3-2-7-0; Pandey 4-1-12-0; Uthappa 1-0-2-0.
