Karnataka seamers wreaked havoc on Maharashtra to draw curtains on the Ranji Trophy Group B contest within three days at the Punjab Cricket Association here on Friday.
The much-needed 10-wicket victory helped Karnataka end the league phase the way they had played throughout — with dominance, except in previous two matches.
On a seamer-friendly pitch, Karnataka flourished. They shot out Maharashtra for 163 in two sessions on the opening day before occupying the crease for over four sessions to lay the foundation for victory. When they resumed at 313/9 in the morning, captain R Vinay Kumar complemented his first innings five-wicket haul with an unbeaten 56 off 79 balls.
Karnataka folded for 345, with the last wicket stand between Vinay and S Arvind swelling to 37 and giving them a sizeable first innings lead of 182.
David Mathias, picked ahead of Robin Uthappa as a replacement for Manish Pandey, justified his selection with figures of 3-37 as Maharashtra collapsed to 218 in 47.3 overs, despite an attacking 59-ball 87 by Kedar Jadhav. Set a paltry 37-run target, R Samarth and Kaunain Abbas, opening the batting, fetched Karnataka the crucial 7 points in 44 minutes.
The victory has boosted their chances of entering the quarterfinals as group toppers, subject to the outcome of the contest between table-toppers Jharkhand and Odisha.
After doing the needful with the bat, Karnataka needed to make the ball talk. And Vinay and Co did just that. Maharashtra, in need of an outright win to qualify, had to collect runs at a fast clip. It worked out to be a double-edged sword. Most Maharashtra batsmen perished to edges flying to the slip cordon or to the wicket-keeper.
The opening right-left pair of captain Swapnil Gugale and Rohit Motwani were back in the dressing room for mere 17 runs, before Naushad Shaikh and Jadhav put together stand of 62 runs for the third wicket. It was a compact, breezy innings from Jadhav who made the bowlers pay for anything short or wide. But Stuart Binny broke the stand by inducing an edge from Shaikh. Jadhav again stitched a partnership, this time 59 runs for the fifth wicket, with Chirag Khurana, before Mathias came into the picture.
In a tactical move, Mathias was made to change ends by Vinay after bowling just one over from the pavilion end. It worked instantly. First Khurana edged to slips, and four overs later Jadhav did the same, with Abbas at second slip taking a good catch after the ball deflected from the fingers of Samarth at first slip. Once the two left, Maharashtra’s tail wagged for a while before surrendering to the inevitable.
Scoreboard
MAHARASHTRA (I innings): 163.
KARNATAKA (I innings; O/n: 313/9): R Vinay Kumar (not out) 56 (122m, 79b, 9x4), S Arvind lbw Khurana 11 (66m, 28b, 2x4). Extras (B-8, LB-3, NB-2, W-1) 14. Total (all out, 110 overs) 345.
Fall of wicket: 10-345 (Arvind).
Bowling: Anupam Sanklecha 32-6-78-3, Nikit Dhumal 20-5-57-1 (nb-1), Pradeep Dadhe 26-3-98-2, Mohsin Sayyed 11-1-42-2, Chirag Khurana 13-0-41-2, Rahul Tripathi 4-2-5-0, Swapnil Gugale 4-1-13-0.
MAHARASHTRA (II Innings): Swapnil Gugale c Hoysala b Mithun 8 (16m, 12b, 1x4), Rohit Motwani c Gautam b Vinay 9 (12m, 8b, 1x4), Naushad Shaikh c Gautam b Binny 6 (49m, 22b), Kedar Jadhav c Abbas b Mathias 85 (117m, 59b, 10x4, 2x6), Rahul Tripathi b Arvind 0 (7m, 6b), Chirag Khurana c Abbas b Mathias 28 (48m, 42b, 5x4), Ankit Bawne c Samarth b Mithun 26 (69m, 44b, 4x4), Anupam Sanklecha c Gautam b Mathias 14 (36m, 23b, 3x4), Mohsin Sayyad c Hoysala b Gowtham 0 (19m, 14b), Pradeep Dadhe (not out) 7 (37m, 23b, 1x4), Nikit Dhumal st Gautam b Deshpande 26 (34m, 36b, 4x4). Extras: (NB-4, W-1, B-4) 9. Total (all out; 47.3 overs) 218.
Fall of wickets: 1-17 (Motwani), 2-17 (Gugale), 3-79 (Shaikh), 4-80 (Tripathi), 5-139 (Khurana), 6-156 (Jadhav), 7-178 (Sanklecha), 8-185 (Bawne), 9-185 (Sayyad).
Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 9-0-51-1 (nb-1, w-1), Abhimanyu Mithun 7-1-44-2, Stuart Binny 4-1-22-1, S Arvind 9-0-35-1, K Gowtham 8-2-21-1, David Mathias 10-0-37-3 (nb-3), Pavan Deshpande 0.3-0-4-1.
KARNATAKA (II innings): R Samarth (not out) 25 (44m, 34b, 4x4), Mir Kaunain Abbas (not out) 14 (44m, 26b, 2x4). Total (for no loss, 10 overs) 39.
Bowling: Anupam Sanklecha 5-0-21-0, Pradeep Dadhe 3-0-8-0. Nikit Dhumal 2-0-10-0
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