Karnataka hold the aces

Despite a poor bowling effort, visitors look good for a spot in semis

To suggest that Madhya Pradesh have an outside chance of registering a win on Monday’s fourth and final day’s play might sound a bit exaggerating, but stranger things have happened in cricket. Karnataka, overnight 306 for eight, mustered 361 all out for a handsome lead of 161 runs, courtesy CM Gautam (51, 97b, 5x4) who went on to complete a half-century. His close-to-three-hour stint came to an end when umpire Amiesh Saheba shockingly declared him lbw when the ball was clearly going down the leg.

Madhya Pradesh then flexed their batting muscle against arguably the best domestic attack in the country to take the day’s honours. At stumps on Sunday’s third day here at the Holkar Stadium, Madhya Pradesh, requiring nothing less than a victory to progress to the semifinals, scored at a brisk rate to gain a none-too-insignificant 151-run cushion to finish at 312 for seven.

Given Karnataka’s batting in the second innings this season, MP’s hopes of making a fist of the remaining battle might just appear a bit too ambitious but there is little doubt that the home team would be going all out on the final day. With three wickets still in the bank and a well-set left-handed Ankit Sharma at the crease, MP will try to build on their lead and then put pressure on Karnataka batsmen.

MP’s cause was also helped by an off-the-boil Karnataka bowling and if not for two brilliant pieces of fielding, their position wouldn’t have been far from comfortable. Barring A Mithun (2/72), who looked like taking wicket every time R Vinay Kumar summoned him, the rest of the bowlers struggled to make an impact on the purposeful MP batsmen.

Veteran Sunil Joshi (2/93), who bowled a marathon 19-over first spell, did have two wickets to show for his toil but it was much less than what was expected of him on a pitch that offered enough turn.   

S Arvind, however, was a bigger let-down on the day. The left-arm seamer, the most impressive of Karnataka bowlers on the opening day, was wayward and leaked runs aplenty. A normally economic Vinay and Joshi too went for a few in the last session of play, a whopping 224 runs were scored off the trio of Karnataka skipper, the left-arm spinner and Arvind at close to five runs an over as MP turned the heat on in the final session.

Naman Ojha (68, 122b, 8x4, 1x6), unlike in the first innings, came out with a positive approach and gave a solid start to the innings with an 84-run partnership at the top with Jalaj Saxena before Joshi broke the association.

Mohnish Mishra (45, 48b, 6x4, 1x6) overshadowed Ojha in the second-wicket stand of 56. While Mithun got rid of Ojha, KB Pawan’s alacrity at covers put an end to Mishra’s breezy stay. Pawan dived full-length to his left to stop a Mishra push and then passed the ball to stumper CM Gautam in a flash to catch the batsman, who was sent back by skipper Devendra Bundela, stranded in the middle.    

Bundela perished at the stroke of tea, by which time MP were seven runs past Karnataka’s lead. Upon resumption, Abbas Ali (64, 60b, 8x4) went into over-drive and reached his fifty in just 46 balls. Harpreet Singh (19) and Murtaza Ali (38, 29b, 6x4) too swung their bat around as 144 runs came in the last session off just 25.3 overs. Game on?   

Score Board

MADHYA PRADESH (I Innings): 200 all out in 73.5 overs
KARNATAKA (I Innings; O/n: 306/8): CM Gautam lbw Saxena 51 (168m, 97b, 5x4), A Mithun lbw Ankit 4 (77m, 58b, 1x4), S Arvind (not out) 4 (10m, 6b, x14). Extras (B-1, NB-9, W-1) 10.
Total (all out, 116.4 overs) 361.
Fall of wickets: 1-66 (Uthappa), 2-73 (Ganesh), 3-116 (Pawan), 4-155 (Pandey), 5-228 (Binny), 6-294 (Verma), 7-294 (Vinay), 8-297 (Joshi), 9-351 (Gautam).
Bowling: TP Sudhindra 20-3-63-0 (nb-1), Amit Sharma 27-6-82-1 (nb-4), Anand Rajan 26-4-77-2 (nb-4, w-1), Ankit Sharma 20.4-2-83-2, Jalaj Saxena 20-5-43-4, Abbas Ali 3-0-12-0.

MADHYA PRADESH (II Innings): Naman Ojha b Mithun 68 (166m, 122b, 8x4, 1x6), Jalaj Saxena c Mithun b Joshi 22 (111m, 77b, 1x4), Mohnish Mishra (run out) 45 (70m, 48b, 6x4, 1x6), Devendra Bundela lbw Vinay 9 (33m, 30b), Abbas Ali c Gautam b Mithun 64 (90m, 60b, 8x4), Harpreet Singh c Gautam b Joshi 19 (51m, 35b, 1x4), Murtaza Ali (run out) 38 (53m, 29b, 6x4), Ankit Sharma (batting) 24 (45m, 31b, 3x4), TP Sudhindra (batting) 11 (14m, 13b, 2x4). Extras (B-5, LB-4, NB-3) 12. Total (Fot 7 wkts, 74 overs) 312.
Fall of wickets: 1-84 (Saxena), 2-140 (Ojha), 3-146 (Mishra), 4-168 (Bundela), 5-224 (Harpreet), 6-260 (Abbas), 7-296 (Murtaza). Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 16-2-72-1, A Mithun 14-3-49-2 (nb-3), Sunil Joshi 28-5-93-2, Stuart Binny 2-0-17-0, S Arvind 11-1-59-0, Ganesh Satish 3-0-13-0.