Skipper Manish Pandey’s continued his rich vein of form with a blistering unbeaten ton while a returning Shreyas Gopal claimed a five-for as Karnataka remained on top of the Group D table with a comprehensive 146-run win over Arunachal Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (T20) tournament here on Sunday.
Opting to bat first, Karnataka posted 226 for four before dismissing Arunachal for 80 in 10.4 overs. This was Karnataka’s third win in as many matches and they sit atop the table with 12 points.
Karnataka lost a fit-again opener Mayank Agarwal (15) and one-drop Karun Nair (11) cheaply but Pandey, who struck a breezy 74 in the opening game against Assam, took the Arunachal bowlers to the cleaners during his 46-ball 111 that included nine fours and seven sixes.
The right-hander raised a massive 155-run stand in just 70 balls in the company of Sharath B R who got out in the last over after a quickfire 43 (30b, 1x4, 3x6).
The target was too imposing for the lowly Arunachal who just crumbled under weight of score board pressure. Leg-spinning all-rounder Shreyas, who sat out first two matches, ran through middle and lower order during an impressive spell of 3.4-0-11-5. V Kouchik did a fine job upfront returning figures of 2/13.
SCORE BOARD
KARNATAKA: Rohan Kadam c Kshitiz Sharma b Techi Neri 25, Mayank Agarwal c Song Tacho b Sahani 15, Karun Nair c David b Kataria 11, Manish Pandey (not out) 111, Sharath BR c Hussain b Sahani 43, J Suchith (not out) 5. Extras (B-5, W-11) 16. Total (for 4 wkts, 20 overs) 226.
Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-52, 3-60, 4-215.
Bowling: Sams Alam 4-0-56-0, Akhilesh Sahani 4-0-39-2, Prateek Kataria 4-0-30-1, Techi Neri 3-0-31-1, Kshitiz Sharma 3-0-36-0, Samarth Seth 2-0-29-0.
ARUNACHAL PRADESH: Samarth Seth (run out) 49, Techi Doria c Nair b Koushik 2, Song Tacho lbw Koushik 0, Kshitiz Sharma c Nair b Bhandage 4, Akhilesh Sahani lbw Shreyas 4, Kamsha Yangfo, lbw Suchith 0, Suheh Hussain c Pandey b Shreyas 3, Tana David st Sharath b Shreyas 6, Prateek Kataria c Nair b Shreyas 3, Techi Neri (not out) 1, Sams Alam c Nair b Shreyas 4. Extras (LB-2, W-2) 4. Total (all out, 14.4 overs) 80.
Fall of wickets: 1-26, 2-27, 3-36, 4-56, 5-59, 6-64, 7-72, 8-73, 9-76.
Bowling: Prasidh Krishna 2-0-13-0, V Koushik 2-0-13-2, Manoj Bhandage 2-0-13-1, K C Cariappa 2-0-14-0, Shreyas Gopal 3.4-0-11-5, J Suchith 3-0-14-1.
Group D other brief scores: Mizoram: 91 all out in 19.1 overs (Taruwar Kohli 47; Rajesh Mohanty 2-12, Pappu Roy 3-8) lt to Odisha: 95/1 in 12.5 overs (Rajesh Dhuper 38 n.o., Sandeep Pattnaik 54 n.o.).
Chhattisgarh: 194/2 in 20 overs (S Chandrakar 56, Harpreet Singh 92 n.o., AN Khare 30 n.o.) lt to Assam: 195/5 in 20 overs (SA Roy 52, AS Sinha 77 n.o., RK Ahmed 35 n.o.; Pankaj Rao 2-34).
Haryana: 141/8 in 20 overs (HJ Rana 60, R Tewatia 30; Ashok Dinda 2-23, KK Seth 2-37, IC Porel 3-28) lt to Bengal: 145/7 in 19 overs (B Vivek Singh 32, Manoj Tiwary 30; AH Hooda 2-22, Amit Mishra 2-23).
Other results: Group A: Kerala bt Andhra by 8 runs; Delhi bt J & K by 4 wkts; Jharkhand bt Manipur by 121 runs.
Group B: Tamil Nadu bt Bihar by 6 wickets; Rajasthan bt Meghalaya by 72 tuns; Gujarat bt Himachal Pradesh by 70 runs.
Group C: Mumbai bt Madhya Pradesh by 8 wkts; Services bt Punjab by 8 wkts; Railways bt Goa by 8 wkts.
Group E: Uttar Pradesh bt Tripura by 58 runs; Baroda bt Hyderabad by 4 wkts; Services bt Maharashtra by 6 wkts.
Points: Win: 4; Loss: 0.