Fiery Mithun grabs five to peg back UP

Young paceman makes impressive debut; Karnataka all out for 405

Also 20 then, Srinath cut a swathe through Hyderabad on his Ranji debut in 1989, picking up a hat-trick on his way to a five-wicket haul in the first innings. There was no hat-trick for Mithun on day two of the Ranji Trophy Super League tie against Uttar Pradesh, but the gangling 20-year-old provided ample evidence of why he is rated highly with an outstanding burst of sustained hostility.

Mithun finished the day with figures of five for 63, completely deserving those returns for ripping pace, excellent control and great perseverance as he hustled and harried the Uttar Pradesh top order.

The advantage procured on day one appeared to have been frittered away when Karnataka’s lower order keeled over early on Wednesday morning. There was no dream double ton for Manish Pandey, dismissed in the day’s first over for his overnight 194, as Karnataka lost five for 33 in 13 overs to subside to 405 all out after resuming at 372 for five.

UP might have begun the day strongly, but it was Karnataka who ended it in command, riding on Mithun’s brilliance and maturity to reduce the hosts to 214 for eight, 42 short of avoiding the follow on.

Only three years young in competitive cricket, Mithun displayed a wise head on his broad but young shoulders, not allowing himself to be overawed by the occasion. Inevitable early nerves were quickly put away as the right-arm quick fired one telling salvo after another, making the batsmen dance to his tune through sheer pace and the ability to get the ball to bounce alarmingly from a length.

The fluent Tanmay Srivatsava was his first victim, tentatively poking at a ball that got big on him and putting Thilak Naidu in business; three deliveries later, Mohammad Kaif was pinged in front of his stumps by a breakback at great pace, and Karnataka were rapidly cashing in on the start provided by R Vinay Kumar, who dismissed Shivakant Shukla with a nasty lifter.

Staying power
Mithun showed heart and staying power in long spells of 8-1-26-2 and 6-1-23-3. Very rapidly, he established himself as Rahul Dravid’s go-to man, and it came as no surprise that Uttar Pradesh’s best batting periods came when Mithun was off the field with cramps, and then had to spend as much time on the park waiting for his turn to bowl as he was out of it.

Had it not been for a gritty undefeated ninth-wicket stand of 57 (60m, 108b) between Amir Khan and Praveen Gupta, UP could have found themselves further embarrassed, their cause further helped by Sunil Joshi spilling a sitter at mid-off when Gupta mistimed a hoick off part-time leggie Amit Verma on seven out of 182 for eight.
UP had begun the day in sensational style, Shallabh Srivastava accounting for Pandey through a sharp catch by Tanmay at second slip. Shallabh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar blasted out the lower order in double quick time, but Mithun replied with singeing fire of his own to stamp his influence on the proceedings.

SCORE BOARD
KARNATAKA (I Innings, o/N: 372/5): Manish Pandey c Tanmay b Shallabh 194 (325m, 242b, 27x4, 1x6), B Akhil c Amir b Bhuvneshwar 28 (87m, 49b, 4x4), Sunil Joshi lbw Bhuvneshwar 6 (26m, 21b, 1x4), R Vinay Kumar c Chawla b Shallabh 6 (36m, 17b), Udit Patel c RP Singh b Shallabh 5 (7m, 8b, 1x4), A Mithun (not out) 0 (9m, 5b). Extras (B-8, LB-14, W-2, NB-13) 37. Total (all out, 103 overs) 405.
Fall of wickets: 6-372 (Pandey), 7-382 (Joshi), 8-393 (Akhil), 9-400 (Patel).
Bowling: Rudra Pratap Singh 19-3-75-1, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 30-5-109-4 (w-2, nb-9), Shallabh Srivastava 24-2-76-4 (nb-4), Piyush Chawla 13-1-71-0, Praveen Gupta 12-3-32-0, Parvinder Singh 5-1-20-0.
UTTAR PRADESH (I Innings): Tanmay Srivastava c Naidu b Mithun 30 (52m, 33b, 6x4), Shivakant Shukla c Pandey b Vinay 5 (31m, 21b, 1x4), Ravikant Shukla c Akhil b Mithun 27 (99m, 74b, 5x4), Mohammad Kaif lbw Mithun 0 (3m, 3b), Parvinder Singh c Pandey b Mithun 32 (107m, 79b, 6x4), Bhuvneshwar Kumar lbw Vinay 10 (64m, 51b), Piyush Chawla c Naidu b Mithun 2 (9m, 8b), Amir Khan (batting) 50 (119m, 102b, 7x4, 1x6), RP Singh c Verma b Patel 10 (36m, 29b, 2x4), Praveen Gupta (batting) 21 (60m, 53b, 3x4). Extras (B-8, LB-8, W-8, NB-3) 27. Total (for 8 wkts, 75 overs) 214.
Fall of wickets: 1-27 (Shivakant), 2-44 (Tanmay), 3-44 (Kaif), 4-87 (Ravikant), 5-116 (Parvinder), 6-125 (Chawla), 7-130 (Bhuvneshwar), 8-157 (RP Singh).
Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 19-7-51-2 (w-2), A Mithun 16-2-63-5 (w-5, nb-2), B Akhil 11-4-19-0 (w-1), Sunil Joshi 15-7-21-0, Udit Patel 11-4-31-1, Amit Verma 3-0-13-0 (nb-1).