JOIN USKarnataka end home leg with a draw
Karnataka completed this season’s Ranji Trophy home assignments with a comfortable draw against Uttar Pradesh at the M Chinnaswamy stadium here on Sunday.
Once Karnataka didn’t enforce follow-on on Saturday even after securing a massive 499 runs first innings lead, it was quite clear that they wanted to bat on. It might have been an attempt to give their top-order a good work out ahead of the knockouts. But all they could manage in their second innings was 215 all out, building an overall lead of 714 runs.
UP played out the next 51 minutes without too much alarm, ending up at 42 for two.
Karnataka bagged three points from this game, swelling their tally to 32 and assuring themselves the top place in Group A. UP got one point and now they stand at nine points and on the brink of an embarrassing elimination to Group C next season. Karnataka will take on Mumbai away from home from February 6 in their last league match.
In the first innings here, Karnataka batsmen came up with their most assured batting display of the season, racking up a mammoth 719 for 9 declared. But there was no encore in the second essay. Robin Uthappa departed in the second over of the first session itself without adding anything to his overnight score of 8. Uthappa edged Praveen Kumar to Ekalavya Dwivedi behind the stumps.
CM Gautam, who made a fine fifty in the previous innings, was given a promotion to number three, and he lasted just two balls before being trapped in front of the wicket by Amit Mishra. With Manish Pandey too failed to stick around, Karnataka soon found themselves at 27 for three, as the home side faced that familiar wobble upfront.
Ravikumar Samarth and Karun Nair took the defending champions past the 50-run mark without further hiccups before Imtiaz Ahmed ended Samarth’s stay. At this juncture, Uttar Pradesh might have been hoping to bundle out Karnataka for a paltry score, and salvage some pride. But two identical 43-run partnerships for the fifth and seventh wickets thwarted their designs.
Karun Nair and Shreyas Gopal stitched together the first 43-run association. Karun again looked scratchy but Shreyas was fluent before both of them fell in the space of eight runs. KL Rahul, who walked in at number seven accompanied by loud round of cheers, Abrar Kazi milked 43 runs during an entertaining seven overs.
Rahul, who had scored a record-breaking 337 in the first innings, made a swift 43 off 33 balls with nine fours. During his cameo, Rahul also became the third highest run-getter in a Ranji Trophy match. Rahul’s collective 380 runs in this match was behind Saurashtra’s Cheteshwar Pujara, who accumulated 389 against Karnataka in 2012-13 and BB Nimbalkar’s 443 milked for Maharashtra against Kathiawar in 1948-49.
When UP came for their second knock, they had a maxium of 24 overs, including the 15 mandatory overs, to negotiate. The sight of Karun and Samarth opening the bowling suggested that the friendly handshake between teams was not far away. Both the teams leisurely went through 14 overs before agreeing for a draw.