Sunil Raju cautioned for chucking

 Introduced well into the post-lunch session, Raju bowled just one over (1-0-6-0) before the umpire cautioned him about the action after a delivery that kicked up from the good-length position, also forcing the Karnataka camp to take him out of the attack. Now, it will be tough for them to bring Raju, who was once included in the suspected action list, back into attack on the morrow after getting warned once for suspected illegal action.

“Umpires have the right to caution about suspect action, and they did that today as well. They will examine the footage at the end of the day, and will point out to the bowler about the delivery that breached the law,” match referee Manu Nayyar said.

Karnataka coach Sanath Kumar said, “Yes, the umpires have cautioned him. But there were numerous deliveries in this match that kicked up to trouble the batsmen.”

That their batsmen failed to negotiate a tricky pitch too added to the woes of Karnataka. “The pitch is a funny one. It has played some tricks today, but our batsmen too needed to show little more patience to tame the pitch. It wasn’t an impossible task as Baroda’s Pinal Shah showed while notching up a fifty,” Sanath said.

Baroda coach Mukesh Narula too agreed to Sanath’s view point. “Pinal batted brilliantly today and showed the necessary application to bat on this wicket. The pitch indeed is a tough one to bat, but if you stay there you can make runs on this wicket. If we had one more fifty in our innings then we would have gained a certain upper hand in this match.
Now, whoever bat better in the second innings will emerge the winner,” Narula said.