R Vinay Kumar put on a show worthy of a leader to give Karnataka a genuine chance of registering their first win of the season against Odisha in their Group ‘B’ Ranji Trophy match.
Even as the rest of Karnataka bowling unit fell by the wayside on Monday, Vinay scalped seven wickets while conceding a mere 58 runs in 21 overs. Despite his fine effort, that is his second best performance after the 8/32-display against Delhi in 2009-2010, Odisha managed to score 255 all out in 74 overs.
Karnataka, who bundled out Odisha for 202 and managed to reach 213 in their first stint with the bat, trail by 202 runs with nine wickets to spare after they finished the penultimate day at 43 for one at the M Chinnaswamy stadium.
Pawan fails again
Robin Uthappa (25) and Ganesh Satish (5) remained unbeaten at the crease while KB Pawan’s poor run continued as the right-hander fell, pushing at an away-swinging delivery from Alok Mangaraj.
Earlier, Odisha, overnight 30 for two, got off to a poor start after they lost overnight batsman Govinda Poddar (16) as a late out-swinger from Vinay sent the off-stump tumbling to add another wicket to his two scalps from day two.
Alok Sahoo, who was promoted to open the innings ahead of skipper Natraj Behera with 15 overs to play on Sunday, looked in no pressure and struck a few powerful boundaries to reach 37 runs (99m, 65b, 8x4) in quick time. He was ably supported by Biplab Samantray at the other end.
Following the loss of Sahoo to a dead-straight delivery from Stuart Binny which strapped him right in front of the stumps, Samantray took up the role of holding one end up, while new-man-in Natraj (17) was scratchy from the start.
The duo, however, stuck around for 63 minutes and added 41 runs for the fifth-wicket as Karnataka’s bowlers – barring Vinay – gave away too many loose deliveries.
The end of that partnership – Natraj bowled by SL Akshay (2/43) off a delivery which darted in -- was followed by the best stand of this match.
Vital stand
Odisha ’keeper Subrajith Sahu joined Samantray in the middle with the score on five for 105 and the duo immediately forged a partnership. While Samantray showcased his overall skills en route a clinical 86 runs (203m, 138b, 13x4), Sahu was on attack-mode from the word go.
Sahu (48, 169m, 109b, 8x4) and Samantray added 100 runs for the sixth-wicket before the latter fell to an excellent catch from Manish Pandey off a brilliant ball from Vinay.
Pandey, who put down a regulation catch at slips off the edge of Sahoo in the 18th over, dived to his wrong side – left – and held on to a tough chance to bring an end to what at one point seemed like Karnataka’s doom.
Following the loss of Samantray, Vinay stepped into overdrive. Bowling as clinically as he had done all match, Vinay managed to do a little something with every delivery to run through most of Odisha’s tail-end.
While every other Karnataka bowler found it hard to keep things tidy, Vinay put the ball in all the right places -- barring one ball which drifted to the leg-side and caught Deepak Behera’s edge en route to Karnataka wicketkeeper CM Gautam -- and scalped three more wickets to reduce Odisha to nine for 252 before Akshay cleaned up Alok Mangaraj for his sixth wicket of the match.
Vinay did what he set out to do by claiming ten wickets in the match and giving Karnataka a chance of pulling off an outright win.
That, however, comes down to how the under-fire Karnataka batsmen tackle Odisha’s bowlers on the final day of a tantalising contest.
score board
ODISHA (I Innings): 202 all out.
KARNATAKA (I Innings): 213 all out.
ODISHA (II Innings, O/n: 30/2): Sandip Mulia b Vinay 0 (3m, 5b), Alok Sahoo lbw Binny 37 (99m, 65b, 8x4), Niranjan Behera b Vinay 4 (10m, 6b, 1x4), Govinda Poddar b Vinay 16 (70m, 48b, 3x4), Biplab Samantray c Pandey b Vinay 86 (203m, 138b, 13x4), Natraj Behera b Akshay 17 (63m, 29b, 2x4), Subrajith Sahu lbw Vinay 48 (169m, 109b, 8x4), Deepak Behera c Gautam b Vinay 7 (13m, 12b, 1x4), Lagnajith Samal (not out) 20 (40m, 27b, 3x4), Basanta Mohanty c Gautam b Vinay 5 (7m, 8b, 1x4), Alok Mangaraj b Akshay 0 (4m, 2b). Extras (B-4, LB-6, NB-5) 15. Total (all out, 74 overs) 255.
Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Mulia), 2-8 (Niranjan), 3-54 (Poddar), 4-64 (Sahoo), 5-105 (Natraj), 6-205 (Samantray), 7-216 (Deepak), 8-242 (Sahu), 9-252 (Mohanty).
Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 21-6-58-7 (nb-1), SL Akshay 13-1-43-2, HS Sharath 17-1-70-0, KP Appanna 6-0-23-0 (nb-1), Amit Verma 1-0-4-0, Stuart Binny 14-5-39-1 (nb-3), Robin Uthappa 2-0-8-0.
KARNATAKA (II Innings): KB Pawan c Sahu b Mangaraj 12 (46m, 36b, 1x4), Robin Uthappa 25 (batting) (91m, 54b, 3x4), Ganesh Satish 5 (batting) (44m, 24b). Extras (LB-1) 1. Total
(for 1 wkt, 19 overs) 43.
Fall of wicket: 1-27 (Pawan).
Bowling: Basanta Mohanty 6-1-11-0, Alok Mangaraj 7-2-19-1, Biplab Samantray 4-1-10-0, Deepak Behera 2-1-2-0.
Ranji Trophy round-up
Group A: At Hyderabad: Mumbai: 443 vs Hyderabad: 423/3 in 135 overs (Akshath Reddy 196, Hanuma Vihari 191).
At Mohali: Saurashtra: 90 and 233 all out in 62.4 overs (Sagar Jogiyani 76, Jaydev Shah 38, Aarpit Vasavada 29, Chirag Pathak 26; Siddharth Kaul 6-63, Sandeep Sharma 3-57) lt to Punjab 205 and 120/2 in 33.1 overs (Karan Goel 75 n.o.). Punjab: 6 points; Saurashtra: 0.
At Bhubaneswar: Gujarat: 117 and 288/6 in 124 overs (Parthiv Patel 65, Manprit Juneja 57 batting, Smit Patel 55, Samit Gohel 53; Sanjay Bangar 2-49, Anureet Singh 2-61) vs Railways: 308.
At Indore: Madhya Pradesh: 342 and 135/3 in 47 overs (Udit Birla 60 batting; Ankit Sharma 56 batting; Shami Ahmed 2-45) vs Bengal: 299 all out in 113.5 overs (Abhishek Jhunjhunwala 107, Wriddhiman Saha 87, Veer Pratap Singh 30, Writam Porel 30; Ishwar Pandey 5-87, Anad Rajan 3-94).
Group B: At Nagpur: Maharashtra: 282 and 95/3 in 30 overs (Virag Awatae 54 batting) vs Vidarbha: 266 all out in 114.1 overs (Gaurav Upadhayaya 77, Faiz Fazal 61, Hemang Badani 47, Sharikant Wagh 31 n.o.; Samad Fallah 3-45, Sharikant Mundhe 2-39, Chirag Khurana 2-72).
At Delhi: Delhi: 555/4 decl vs Tamil Nadu: 226 all out in 87.4 overs (Dinesh Kaarthick 75, Ramaswamy Prassanna 58, Baba Aparajith 25; Parvinder Awana 4-53, Pawan Suyal 3-76) and 2/0 in 2 overs (following on).
At Rohtak: Haryana: 295 and 127/2 in 55 overs (Sunny Singh 56 batting, Abhimanyu Khod 38 batting) vs Baroda: 324 all out in 94.3 overs (Saurabh Wakskar 100, Aditya Waghmode 77, Ambati Rayudu 54, Gagandeep Singh 26 n.o.; Amit Mishra 5-97, Mohit Shamra 4-86).
Group C: At Jammu: Jammu & Kashmir: 153 and 222 all out in 77 overs (Ian Dev Singh 65, Ram Dayal 47, Sahil Sharma 44 n.o., Aditya Pratap Singh 25; Paidkalva Vijayakumar 3-33, T Achuta Rao 3-40, Shaik Basha 3-79) lt to Andhra: 390. Andhra: 7; J&K: 0.
At Malappuram: Goa: 512/8 decl vs Kerala: 249/6 in 110 overs (Abhishek Hegde 80, Rohan Prem 49 batting, Ummer Anthaf 37; Sher Yadav 3-34, Sauabh Bandekar 2-69).
At Delhi: Assam: 182 and 170 all out in 60 overs (Tarjinder Singh 54, Abu Nechim 38; Shadab Nazar 6-50, Nishan Singh 3-57) lt to Services: 326 all out in 99.1 overs (Rajat Paliwal 167, Soumya Swain 33, Suraj Yadav 29, Shadab Nazar 27; Abu Nechim 3-75, Arup Das 3-88, Dhiraj Goswami 3-84) and 27/0 in 7.2 overs. Services: 7; Assam: 0.
At Ranchi: Jharkhand: 236 and 27/0 in 12 overs vs Himachal Pradesh: 442/7 decl in 143 overs (Rishi Dhawan 128, Prashant Chopra 101, Akash Chopra 61, Amit Kumar 52, Aatish Bhalaik 50 n.o.; Shankar Rao 3-85, Sunnu Gupta 2-108).
