After watching his younger team-mate hog all the limelight in Meerut, Vinay came up with an inspired bowling effort that deservedly fetched him his career-best figures. The right-arm medium-pacer’s eight-wicket haul, coming in two lengthy spells, shot the hosts out for a miserly 154 after Rahul Dravid opted to bowl first on an admittedly pace-friendly pitch.
Building on the 25-year-old’s exploits, Karnataka tightened their grip, finishing the day at a healthy 91 for two with opener KB Pawan (40) and Dravid (33), who have added 71 for the unfinished third wicket, looking in ominous touch.
The green cover on the surface forced Karnataka to include left-arm seamer S Aravind at the expense of offie Udit Patel, and the visitors were none the worse for going in with a three-pronged pace attack. The score card will show that it was a one-man demolition job, and it indeed was to a great extent. But without the sustained hostility by Mithun and Aravind from the other end, notching up those impressive returns would have been that much harder for the senior pro.
Even as Vinay kept at pegging away, Mithun and Aravind didn’t allow the momentum slip away. Mithun wasn’t in his wicket-taking elements, but throughout his three short spells, he bowled at high speed without sacrificing either length or line. Playing only his second Ranji tie, Aravind took a couple of overs to get the measure of the track but once he slipped into a nice rhythm, he was a difficult customer to deal with without any wickets to show for quality pace bowling.
Vinay dug deep to claim eight for 32 in two spells that read 10-6-10-3 and 11.4-5-22-5, bettering his previous best of six for 38 against Maharashtra in Ratnagiri two seasons ago.
Delhi skipper Aakash Chopra braved a knee injury, but his stay lasted just 20 minutes and yielded six runs. Deputy Shikhar Dhawan battled on but with Mithun and Sunil Joshi chipping in with a wicket each, Delhi went into the lunch break at a sorry 87 for five. Post lunch, it was Vinay all the way, the rest of the Delhi batting knocked over in an extended spell split by lunch.
Sizing up the nature of the wicket quickly, Vinay stuck to basics. He wasn’t express, but quick enough to trouble the batsmen to go with his outswingers and occasional off-cutters. That the 34-run association between Puneet Bisht and Parvinder Awana for the ninth wicket was the best partnership of the innings highlighted Delhi’s plight. Their misery would have been further compounded if Bisht and Awana, who threw his bat around for a while, had not been let off by a somewhat lethargic Manish Pandey.
SCORE BOARD:
DELHI (I Innings): Aakash Chopra c Dravid b Vinay 6 (20m, 17b, 1x4), Shikhar Dhawan c Pandey b Mithun 26 (100m, 70b, 4x4), Gaurav Chabra b Vinay 6 (42m, 24b, 1x4), Abhishek Sharma c Naidu b Vinay 0 (9m, 8b), Rajat Bhatia c Dravid b Joshi 7 (37m, 24b, 1x4), Mayank Tehlan c Akhil b Vinay 28 (86m, 68b, 5x4), Yogesh Nagar lbw Vinay 13 (48m, 45b, 2x4), Puneet Bisht (not out) 31 (71m, 44b, 6x4), Sumeet Narwal b Vinay 0 (1m, 1b), Parvinder Awana b Vinay 17 (35m, 2b, 3x4), Pawan Suyal b Vinay 4 (9m, 9b, 1x4). Extras (B-10, LB-3, W-1, NB-2) 16. Total (all out, 54.4 overs) 154.
Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Chopra), 2-39 (Chabra), 3-39 (Sharma), 4-54 (Dhawan), 5-61 (Bhatia), 6-92 (Nagar), 7-106 (Tehlan), 8-106 (Narwal), 9-140 (Awana).
Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 21.4-11-32-8, A Mithun 12-1-47-1 (nb-1), S Aravind 13-5-30-0 (w-1, nb-1), Sunil Joshi 7-1-32-1, B Akhil 1-1-0-0.
KARNATAKA (I Innings): KB Pawan (batting) 40 (132m, 86b, 7x4), CM Gautam lbw Narwal 2 (10m, 5b), Amit Verma c Dhawan b Suyal 12 (28m, 26b, 2x4), Rahul Dravid (batting) 33 (90m, 63b, 8x4). Extras (B-4) 4. Total (for 2 wkts, 30 overs) 91.
Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Gautam), 2-20 (Verma).
Bowling: Sumeet Narwal 9-1-27-1, Parvinder Awana 6-0-30-0, Pawan Suyal 8-2-18-1, Rajat Bhatia 6-3-7-0, Abhishek Sharma 1-0-5-0.
