There was not much to cheer for Karnataka going into their final league encounter. But the visitors made amends for their poor outings early in the season by recording a thumping innings and 129-run win over Maharashtra here on Friday to finish on a high.
Unfortunately, the effort came far too late as Karnataka were already out of the race for a place in the semifinals. After winkling out three opposition batsmen on Thursday for almost next to nothing, they were left with the job of applying the finishing touches.
They did that in style, skittling Maharashtra out for a paltry 140 after they resumed on 18 for three.
It was R Vinay Kumar had begun the destruction process the previous day with a hat-trick, and the Davangere paceman was in no mood to let slip the advantage as he added three more scalps to the kitty for an impressive innings haul of six for 38.
Unlike in the past, Vinay did not need to battle it out all alone as Sunil Joshi provided him with fine support.
The veteran left-arm spinner grabbed four wickets to hasten the end.
None of the Maharashtra batsmen barring Y Venugopala Rao could offer any meaningful resistance to the rampant Karnataka bowlers. The former Andhra batsman made a steady 56 off 89 balls during his 150 minutes stay at the crease.
Fittingly, Vinay brought an end to Venugopala's tenure and Maharashtra's hopes.
SCORE BOARD
MAHARASHTRA (I innings): 276
KARNATAKA (I innings): 545/9 decl
MAHARASHTRA (II innings, O/n: 18/3):
HH Khadiwale c Joshi b Vinay Kumar 12 (77m, 48b), AR Bawne b Vinay Kumar 0 (16m, 10b), AS Joshi b Vinay Kumar 0 (1m, 1b), AJ Shrikhande lbw b Vinay Kumar 0 (6m, 1b), Y Venugopal Rao c Raghu b Vinay Kumar 56 (150m, 89b), YV Takawale c Pawan b Joshi 39 (75m, 61b), D Mohan c Vinay Kumar b Joshi 0 (1m, 4b), SG Jadhav lbw b Joshi 4 (15m, 13b), AP Dole c Amit Verma b Vinay Kumar 12 (14m, 8b), WS Sayyed c Chipli b Joshi 3 (13m, 9b), SM Fallah (not out) 0 (1m, 0b). Extras (B-5, LB-6, NB-3) 14. Total (all out, 40.1 overs) 140.
Fall of wickets: 1-9 (Bawne), 2-9 (Joshi), 3-13 (Shrikhande), 4-39 (Khadiwale), 5-107 (Takawale), 6-107 (Mohan), 7-125 (Jadhav), 8-125 (Venugopal Rao), 9-140 (Dole), 10-140 (Sayyed).
Bowling: Vinay Kumar 13-3-38-6 (nb-1), NC Aiyappa 10-2-40-0 (nb-2), Sunil Joshi 10.1-5-18-4, C Raghu 4-0-20-0, B Chipli 3-0-13-0.
OTHER RANJI SCORES
Brief scores:
Tamil Nadu : 268 and 174 lt to Delhi: 338 and 105/2 in 25.5 overs (Gautam Gambhir 40, Mithun Manhas 31 not out, Sikhar Dhawan 14 not out).
Uttar Pradesh: 336 and 294/3 decl bt Hyderabad: 193 and 305 (Ravi Teja 133 n,o; Praveen Kumar 6-65).
Saurashtra: 484 drew with Mumbai: 463 (Amol Muzumdar 187, Ajinkya Rahane 149, Sandeep Jobanputra 5-116).
Baroda: 255 and 424/9 (Shah 148, Rajesh Pawar 91) drew with Orissa: 294 (Shib Sundar Das 114, Rajesh Pawar 6-66).
