Bengaluru: Phew!' That was Karnataka coach PV Shashikanth's tone over the phone with DH when he was asked to describe his side's final passage of play against Railways on Sunday.
Karnataka, down for the count, relied on Manish Pandey's experience to get away by the skin of their teeth in the dying minutes of the third day of their Group C Ranji Trophy match at the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium in Surat.
Manish's atypical 121-ball 67 not out and a now-normal cameo of invaluable significance from Vyshak Vijaykumar at No.9 meant Karnataka would eke out a one-wicket victory and pick up six points to top the table with 21 points from five games.
Generally speaking, that position is not bad for a side in a transition, but the state of flux within the team was plenty apparent on the field.
Having bowled Railways out for 244, courtesy Vijaykumar's third first-class fifer, Nikin Jose's men were set a target of 226 runs.
As a standalone number, it seemed fairly straightforward. Karnataka, however, have not had the best of runs as batting unit of late. Even in the first innings, they managed a mediocre 174 in response to Railways' 155.
Granted they are without regular skipper Mayank Agarwal and Devdutt Padikkal, but the trend of low scores has been worrying, and so it was on this day.
As if to exacerbate that concern, Karnataka were down six wickets for 99 runs, meaning they had four wickets to scale down 127 runs. The signs weren't good, save for the presence of Manish and Vyshak's new-found confidence as a batter.
The duo added 64 runs and ate up close to 20 overs in the process, tiring the opposition which relied on spin for the second innings in succession. But Manish and Vyshak were composed enough to tackle them for a significant period of time before the latter was dismissed.
At this point, Karnataka were 29 runs shy of the target with two tailenders left to accompany Manish. The India international has played many such dour knocks under these circumstances for Karnataka in the past, but it has been a while so there was some tension in the air.
Vidwath Kaverappa's dismissal after a hefty six over midwicket only made it all the more palpable.
Worse yet, Manish misjudged a moment and picked up a single at the beginning of Akash Pandey's over, leaving V Koushik with the unenviable task of seeing out the over. Even as the field closed in, the No. 11 picked up one run and handed over the responsibility to Manish.
Manish then knocked off a double and then struck a four to close out the game, and Shashikanth said: 'Phew!'
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