Jiwan shines, Punjab hits back

Mohali: One ball into the third over of play, R. Vinay Kumar trudged back to the pavilion with hand on hip. For Karnataka, already wounded by the absence of the fiery HS Sharath, Vinay’s injury concern — a back spasm was a blow they could ill-afford at this juncture of their Ranji Trophy journey.

Even as the team struggled, and it was evident that they were hamstrung by their skipper’s absence, the 29-year-old returned and came up with a devastating spell of 5 for 26 to ensure Punjab were controlled in their backyard in the semifinals contest, here at the PCA stadium.

With the opening day’s play on Saturday due to unplayable conditions, Sunday turned out to be bright and sunny. Put into bat by Karnataka on a wicket which offered precious little to the bowlers earlier on, despite a healthy sprinkling of grass, Punjab went after the visitors’ attack and for the first 20 overs it seemed like the home team was in for a long haul. But their middle order threw their wickets away, most of which was encashed by Vinay as six wickets fell for a mere 16 runs.

Punjab folded up for 270 with opener Jiwanjot Singh top-scoring with 74 (121b, 12x4). In reply, Karnataka who had to bat out the post-tea session, suffered early setbacks in the form of K.L Rahul (2) and Mayank Agarwal (0) before crawling to 39 for 2 before play was called off due to bad light.

Following the two quick blows, Robin Uthappa (25) and Manish Pandey (8) were cautious to avoid further damage. With 231 runs to catch up on and with a first innings lead seeming to be the decisive factor, Karnataka have their task clearly marked out for Monday.

Karnataka made one change in the line-up bringing in Amit Verma for Abrar Kazi, while Punjab had to replace pacer VRV Singh, who is down with flu, with Jaskaran Singh.

SCOREcard

Punjab (1st innings): Manan Vohra c CM Gautam b R. More 51, Jiwanjot Singh b S. Gopal 74, Taruwar Kohli c KL Rahul b S. Gopal 25, Yuvraj Singh c S. Gopal b A. Verma 42, Mandeep Singh lbw Vinay Kumar 17, Gurkeerat Singh c Gautam b Vinay 8, Gitansh Khera c M. Pandey b Vinay Kumar 0, Harbhajan Singh c KL Rahul b Vinay Kumar 7, Sandeep Sharma (not out) 5, Manpreet Gony c R. More b S. Gopal 5, Jaskaran Singh c&b Vinay Kumar 20. Extras (b5, lb9, nb2) 16. Total (in 64.5 overs) 270.

FoW: 1-85, 2-138, 3-166, 5-227, 6-227, 7-232, 8-239, 9-244.

Bowling: Vinay 8-0-27-5, Mithun 14-3-34-0, More 14.5-4-76-1, Pandey 4-1-7-0, Verma 7-0-19-1, Gopal 15-0-92-3, Karun 2-1-1-0.

Karnataka (1st innings): Robin Uthappa (batting) 25, K.L Rahul c G. Khera b M. Gony 2, Mayank Agarwal c G. Khera b Jaskaran 0, Manish Pandey (batting) 8, Extras (lb1, nb1) 2. Total (for two wickets in 22.4 overs) 39.

FoW: 1-6, 2-23

Bowling: Sandeep 8-4-8-0; Gony 8-1-22-1; Jaskaran 6-2-6-1; Harbhajan 0.4-0-2-0.