Karnataka survive scare in 4-wicket win

Bengaluru: Karnataka pulled off a morale-boosting four-wicket victory over Odisha, their first of the season, but not before they given a real fright on the final day of the Group 'A' Ranji Trophy encounter at the DRIEMS ground at Tangi, near Cuttack on Sunday.

In a match dominated by bowlers on a friendly wicket for the seamers with Karnataka's Abhimanyu Mithun grabbing a splendid match-haul of 11-110, Manish Pandey's first innings ton and Biplab Samantray's second innings century which kept Odisha in the hunt stood out like beacons on a dark night for the batsmen.

Even as Mithun, who scalped 5-58, got into the act by reducing Odisha, who resumed at 169 for four to 182 for six, Samantray proved difficult to dislodge as he completed a gritty but impressive century to guide the hosts to 279, once again adding useful runs -97 to precise -with the lower order.

Samantray, 50 overnight, was the ninth batsman to be dismissed by HS Sharath, who bagged a second career five-wicket haul as Odisha, trailing by 153, set the visitors a none-toodifficult target of 127.

Chasing the modest total for their maiden win of the season, Karnataka stumbled early with Mayank Agarwal falling in the 6th over to Suryakant Pradhan, who rounded off a good firstclass debut. K.L. Rahul and Ganesh Satish then added 58 for the second to seemingly ease the concerns but the former’s dismissal in the 19th over triggered off a collapse and spread panic in the visitors’ camp. Four key wickets in the form of Satish, skipper C.M. Gautam, Pandey and the injured Robin Uthappa fell for a mere 39 runs as Odisha, having been behind tbe ball all through the match, scented the whiff of an upset.

Fortunately for Karnataka, Kunal Kapoor and Abrar Kazi, playing just his second match, put their heads down and batted sensibly with the latter especially playing with refreshing freedom to guide Karnataka to 130 for six in 41.3 overs to set off wild celebrations in their camp.

With six points, Karnataka have 13 points from four games behind leaders Mumbai (19 from four), Gujarat (17 from five) and Punjab (16 from four).

Karnataka next play Haryana at Lahli from Dec. 6-9.

SCOREBOARD Odisha (1st innings): 226 Karnataka (1st innings): 379 Odisha (2nd innings, o/n 169/4): Biplab Samantray lbw Sharath 106, Abhilash Mallick c Kapoor b Mithun 50, Subhrajit Sahoo lbw Mithun 0, Alok Sahoo c Gautam b Mithun 21, Deepak Behera c Gautam b Mithun 0, Basant Mohanty (not out) 14, Suryakant Pradhan c Aravind b Sharath 0. Extras (b17, lb7) 24. Total (all out; 88.3 overs) 279 FoW: 4-74, 5-174, 6-182, 7-232, 8-244, 9-279 Bowling: Abhimanyu Mithun 22-6-585, HS Sharath 25.3-7-80-5, Sreenath Aravind 18-8-35-0, Manish Pandey 60-17-0, Abrar Kazi 15-1-59-0, KL Rahul 1-0-1-0, Mayank Agarwal 1-0-5-0 Karnataka (2nd innings): Mayank Agarwal c S Sahoo b Pradhan 5, KL Rahul c D Behera 29. Ganesh Satish c Rout b Mohanty 34, CM Gautam c & b Pradhan 13, Manish Pandey c S Sahoo b Mohanty 12, Kunal Kapoor (not out) 11, Robin Uthappa c Podder b Pradhan 0, Abrar Kazi (not out) 16.
Extras (b8, nb2) 10. Total (for 6 wkts; 41.3 overs) 130 FoW: 1-7, 2-65, 3-83, 4-103, 5-107, 6-109 Bowling: Basant Mohanty 15-3-34-2, Deepak Behera 8-1-23-1, Suryakant Pradhan 13-4-38-3, Alok Sahoo 5-023-0, Abhilash Mallick 0.3-0-4-0 Karnataka: 6 points. Odisha: 0 RANJI ROUND-UP Group A At Mumbai: Mumbai 261 & 381/4 decl bt Vidarbha: 113 & (o/n 177/8) 191 all out in 46.4 overs (Shrikant Wagh n.o 41, Shardul Thakur 4-48, Vishal Dabholkar 2-33) by 338 runs Points: Mumbai: 6, Vidarbha: 0 At Jamshedpur: Jharkhand 289 & (o/n 28/0) 166 for 7 in 98 overs (Bhavin Thakkar 50 n.o, Saurabh Tiwary 50 n.o, Jasprit Bumrah 3-27, Akshar Patel 2-50) drew with Gujarat 352 for 9 decl Points: Gujarat: 3, Jharkhand: 1 Group B At Chennai: Tamil Nadu: 565 for 8 decl drew with Saurashtra (o/n 326/3): 581 for 6 in 161.4 overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 269, Jaydev Shah 195, Aarpit Vasavada 70, Baba Aparajith 2-71) Points Saurashtra: 3, Tamil Nadu: 1 At Delhi: Bengal: 431and 126 for 3 in 54 overs (Arindam Das 50,Subhomoy Das 54) drew with Services (o/n 261/6) 304 allout in 120.5 overs (Pratik Desai 52, Vishnu Tiwari 71, Suraj Yadav 42 n.o, Ashok Dinda 3-97, Iresh Saxena 2-54, Saurashish Lahiri 3-69) Points: Bengal: 3, Services: 1 At Jaipur: Uttar Pradesh: 226 & 319 for 5 decl drew with Rajasthan: 185 & (o/n 15/0) 253 for 6 in 93 overs (Ashok Maneria 40, Robin Bist 51, Rajesh Bishnoi 53, Chetan. Bist 61 n.o, Imtiaz Ahmad 3-58) Points: UP: 3, Rajasthan: 1