Karnataka stutter home

Verma, Satish power hosts to 38-run victory against Kerala

On the face of it, Karnataka’s victory by a margin of 38 runs may appear straightforward, but truth to tell, the hosts’ second win in as many matches was far from comfortable.

Despite erecting an intimidating 315 all out in 49.5 overs, built around Ganish Satish (90, 105b, 9x4, 1x6) and Amit Verma (85 (61b, 8x4, 3x6), the home team survived some anxious moments before bowling out the visitors for 277 in 45.5 overs. They thus take their points tally to nine in the South Zone one-day tournament for the KS Subbaiah Pillai Trophy at the RSI ground on Tuesday.

On a day when there were run-outs galore -- six in all -- it was the dismissal of the dangerous Rohan Prem (114, 117b, 12x4, 2x6) in this mode that tilted the balance in favour of Karnataka. The left-hander, a clean striker of the cricket ball, scored his second century in as many days as Kerala threatened to spoil Robin Uthappa and his boys’ party, but Verma’s quick release of the ball from mid-off to bowler Stuart Binny caught the batsman short of crease. Requiring a further 72 from 49 balls at that stage, Kerala lost their way and the match to crash to their second defeat and remain pointless.

Unlike the Chinnaswamy turf which aided the Karnataka pacemen, the surface at the RSI was a batsman’s delight as close to 600 runs were plundered in about 96 overs. The quality of the outfield, however, left a lot to be desired. The uneven bounce had the fielders from both sides in perpetual anxiety and quite a few of them took blows on their bodies. Given how the ball was whacked around throughtout the match, it was some sort of a miracle that no one was hurt badly by the end of play!

Till halfway through their chase, Kerala gave little indication of making a match of it. At just 126 for three from 25 overs, the visiting side seemed at best on course to deny the hosts a bonus point but a till-then sedate Prem decided to cut loose at this stage to open up the contest.

Punishing the spin duo of Sunil Raju and KP Appanna and the medium-pace of Binny, the southpaw took the fight to the rival camp with Rakesh KJ (34, 31b, 4x4, 1x6) and Prashanth P (34, 18b, 2x4, 3x6) lending him encouraging hands. The partnership with Rakesh yielded 82 off 62 deliveries while the association with Prashanth resulted in 38 runs from just 21 balls. The back-to-back run outs of Prashanth and Prem, however, put paid to Kerala’s aspirations.

Electing to bat first, Karnataka didn’t have the desired start, losing Uthappa early on to a run out off a direct hit. This particular mode of dismissal appeared contagious as Karun Nair and Manish Pandey too got out in similar fashion. Satish and Verma steadied the ship with a run-a-ball association of 88 for the fourth wicket. A well-set Satish was dismissed at the beginning of the batting Power Play but a promoted A Mithun neutralised the loss with a 20-ball 34 (4x4, 2x6).

Verma, too, stepped on the gas as Karnataka collected 92 runs in the last 10 overs to raise what eventually turned out to be a winning score.