Vidwath Kaverappa picked up a four-wicket haul on the third day of Karnataka's Ranji Trophy game against Kerala. Credit: DH File Photo
Bengaluru: With a spring in their stride, Vidwath Kaverappa (4/42) and Vyshak Vijayakumar (3/62) followed up their impressive bowling show in Shivamogga, with a four-for and three-wicket haul respectively, as Karnataka bowled Kerala out for 238 in 95 overs on the third day of their third Elite Group B fixture at the KCA Cricket Ground in Mangalapuram on Monday.
With just about 15 minutes of play left, Karnataka had no hesitation in enforcing the follow-on in a bid to push for the victory.
MD Nidheesh (4 not out) and Krishna Prasad (2 not out) saw through the tricky phase of play to take Kerala to stumps at 10 for no loss in three overs, still trailing Karnataka by 338 runs.
Earlier, Kerala endured a shoddy batting show despite a fighting half-century from Baba Aparajith (88).
Overnight 21/3, Kerala lost their fourth and the first of the morning as Vidwath rearranged Vaisakh Chandran's stumps in the third over.
The Kerala worries didn't stop there as Basil NP had to walk back retired hurt and the hosts brought in Eden Apple Tom as the concussion substitute.
There was some resistance from Sachin Baby (31) and Baba Aparajith as both batters played positively to put on an 85-run partnership.
However, the resilient stand ended in the last ball of the 43rd over when Vidwath finally broke the shackles, picking up Baby.
At 114/5, Ahammed Imran (31) joined hands with Aparajith to resurrect the innings again and together managed to score 68 runs.
Aparajith's fight was then ended by Shikhar Shetty, caught off Aneesh KV in the 64th over.
Imran soon followed Aparajith back to the pavilion the very next over, giving Shreyas Gopal his first wicket.
The 22-year-old Shikhar came back for his second wicket, this time by dislodging Kerala skipper Mohammed Azharuddeen’s (6) stumps.
After a frustrating ninth-wicket stand between Shoun Roger (29) and Apple Tom (10 not out) that lasted 105-balls for 30 runs, Vyshak pinned the former to end the partnership.
Shikhar (2/31), Shreyas (1/24) capped off what was an all-round bowling effort for Karnataka.
Yashovardhan out
Karnataka have also announced a 15-member squad for the games against Maharashtra (Nov 8-11) in Pune and Chandigarh (Nov 16-19) in Hubbali. Yashovardhan Parantap, who was called in as Devdutt Padikkal's replacement, missed out.
Squad: Mayank Agarwal, SJ Nikin Jose, Karun Nair, Smaran R, Shrijith KL, Abhinav Manohar, Shreyas Gopal, Vyshak V, Vidwath Kaverappa, Abhilash Shetty, Venkatesh M, Kruthik Krishna, (WK), Mohsin Khan, Shikhar Shetty, Aneesh KV
Coach: Yeregoud K; Bowling Coach: Mansur Ali Khan, Fielding Coach: Shabarish P Mohan, Manager: A Ramesh Rao, Strength & Conditioning Coach: Irfanulla Khan, Physiotherapist: Abhishek Kulkarni, Performance Analyst: Giri Prasad, Masseur: Somasundar CM
SCOREBOARD
KARNATAKA (I Innings) 586/5 decl. KERALA (I Innings O/n: 21/3): Krishna Prasad c Aneesh b Vyshak 4 NP Basil (retired hurt) 12 MD Nidheesh b Vidwath 0 Vaisakh Chandran c Jose b Vidwath 0 Akshay Chandran c Nikin b Vidwath 11 Sachin Baby c Shreyas b Vidwath 31 Baba Aparajith c Aneesh b Shikhar 88 Ahammed Imran st Shrijith b Shreyas 31 Mohammed Azharuddeen b Shikhar 6 Shoun Roger lbw Vyshak 29 Eden Apple Tom (not out) 10. Extras (B-1 LB-9) 10. TOTAL (all out 95 overs) 238. Fall of wickets: 1-9 (Krishna) 2-10 (Nidheesh) 3-14 (Vaishak) 4-28 (Akshay) 5-114 (Sachin) 6-182 (Aparajith) 7-186 (Imran) 8-202 (Azharuddeen) 9-232 (Shaun). Bowling: Vidwath Kaverappa 22-9-42-4 Vyshak Vijaykumar 21-6-62-3 Shreyas Gopal 20-6-47-1 Shikhar Shetty 20-2-53-2 Mohsin Khan 12-2-24-0. KERALA (II Innings f/o): Krishna Prasad (batting) 2 MD Nidheesh (batting) 4. Extras (B-4) 4. TOTAL (for no loss 3 overs) 10. Bowling: Vidwath Kaverappa 2-1-1-0 Vijaykumar Vyshak 1-0-5-0. Group B brief scores: New Chandigarh: Punjab 325 in 135.4 overs (Uday Saharan 126 Salil Arora 63 Prerit Dutta 29 Mayank Markande 25; Vasuki Koushik 2-51 Darshan Misal 3-72 Deepraj Gaonkar 3-34) vs Goa (O/n: 92/0) 439/3 in 107 overs (Suyash Prabhudessai 149 Manthan Khutkar 86 Abhinav Tejrana 131 Snehal Kauthankar 54). Indore: Madhya Pradesh 384/8 decl vs Chandigarh: 236/4 in 68 overs (Shivam Bhambri 52 Manan Vohra 52 Ankit Kaushik 59 n.o. Raj Bawa 37 n.o.; Kumar Kartikeya 2-90 Aryan Pandey 2-41). Nasik: Saurashtra (O/n: 61/1) 165/1 in 50 overs (Harvik Desai 70 n.o. Jay Gohil 74 n.o.) vs Maharashtra.