Ranji Trophy | Middle-order collapse jolts Karnataka

Karnataka suffered a middle-order implosion that has left their bid for an outright win against Punjab in the balance at the halfway stage of their Elite Group B Ranji Trophy encounter in Mohali on Friday.

After bowling out Punjab for 309 for the addition of just five runs in the morning, Karnataka looked on course to batter the hosts through openers KL Rahul (59, 87b) and Mayank Agarwal (46, 64b) but inexplicably lost their way thereafter to be placed at a concerning 255/6 in 87 overs at the IS Bindra Stadium.

Now needing nothing less than a win to stay alive considering quarterfinal-chasing teams Madhya Pradesh and Saurashtra appear heading towards victory in their respective clashes, Karnataka made a confident start through Rahul and under-fire Agarwal.

The two close friends turned the clock back in their 102-run stand off 129 balls as they batted in fourth gear without much discomfort. But the moment Agarwal, who was stripped of captaincy following the chastening defeat against Madhya Pradesh in the previous clash, departed in the 22nd over, Karnataka batting just fell apart -- something that has happened frequently in recent times.

They lost four wickets for 64 runs to be reeling at 166/5, new captain and the in-form Devdutt Padikkal and R Smaran, the standout player in the opening leg of the tournament, departing for identical scores of 9. Both the batters were victims of the impressive Harpreet Brar, the left-arm spinner emerging as the wrecker-in-chief with his 4/101.

Veteran spinning all-rounder Shreyas Gopal, however, once again bailed out Karnataka from trouble with a gritty 42 not out off 124 balls. The right-hander first forged a 47-run stand for the sixth wicket with debutant wicket-keeper Kruthik Krishna (28) before sharing a unbeaten 42-run alliance with pacer Vidyadhar Patil (23 n.o.).

Trailing by 54 runs, Karnataka are still not out of the woods and they'll be banking on their Man Friday Shreyas to do all the heavy lifting on all-important third day.  

Cut-off box - SCOREBOARD  PUNJAB (I Innings O/n: 303/9): Abhijeet Garg c Rahul b Shreyas 81 (133b 8x4 2x6) Prabhsimran Singh c Shetty b Patil 5 (8b 1x4) Uday Saharan c Rahul b Mohsin 44 (72b 6x4 1x6) Jashanpreet Singh c Mohsin b Shreyas 6 (16b 1x4) Anmolpreet Singh b Shreyas 0 (1b) Anmol Malhotra c Kruthik b Patil 25 (46b 2x4 1x6) Emanjot Singh Chahal c Padikkal b Patil 83 (140b 9x4 1x6) Ayush Goyal st Kruthik b Mohsin 23 (82b 2x4) Harpreet Brar c Kruthik b Patil 9 (38b 1x4) Sukhdeep Singh Bajwa b Prasidh 20 (13b 4x4) Anmoljeet Singh (not out) 0 (3b). Extras (LB-12 W-1) 13. TOTAL (all out 92 overs) 309. Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Prabhsimran) 2-108 (Saharan) 3-119 (Jashanpreet) 4-119 (Anmolpreet) 5-168 (Malhotra) 6-168 (Garg) 7-249 (Goyal) 8-272 (Brar) 9-301 (Bajwa). Bowling: Prasidh Krishna 14-1-58-1 Vidyadhar Patil 16-4-52-4 Shikhar Shetty 15-2-54-0 Mohsin Khan 25-0-85-2 Shreyas Gopal 22-6-48-3. KARNATAKA (I Innings): KL Rahul b Brar 59 (87b 9x4) Mayank Agarwal c Jashanpreet b Chahal 46 (64b 6x4) KV Aneesh c Prabhsimran b Brar 32 (75b 3x4) Devdutt Padikkal c Jashanpreet b Brar 9 (18b 2x4) R Smaran lbw Brar 9 (15b 1x4) Shreyas Gopal (batting) 42 (124b 3x4) Kruthik Krishna lbw Bajwa 28 (83b 2x4 1x6) Vidyadhar Patil (batting) 23 (56b 4x4). Extras (B-2 LB-5) 7. TOTAL (for 6 wkts 87 overs) 255. Fall of wickets: 1-102 (Agarwal) 2-119 (Rahul) 3-137 (Padikkal) 4-151 (Smaran) 5-166 (Aneesh) 6-213 (Kruthik). Bowling: Ayush Goyal 3-1-8-0 Sukhdeep Singh Bajwa 10-6-22-1 Harpreet Brar 27-3-101-4 Emanjot Singh Chahal 23-6-55-1 Anmoljeet Singh 23-5-55-0 Uday Saharan 1-0-7-0. Other Elite Group B brief scores: At Indore: Madhya Pradesh: 187 & 61/2 in 23 overs vs Maharashtra (O/n: 52/2): 179 all out in 54.3 overs (Arshin Kulkarni 27 Niraj Joshi 29 Ruturaj Gaikwad 46 Saurabh Nawale 29; Saransh Jain 2-53 Kumar Kartikeya 6-33). At Chandigarh: Chandigarh: 136 & 31/0 in 9 overs vs Saurashtra (O/n: 167/1): 453/3 decl in 106.1 overs (Harvik Desai 200 n.o. Jay Gohil 98 Arpit Vasavada 96 Prerak Mankad 26 n.o.). At Porvorim: Goa (O/n: 279/8): 355 all out in 110.4 overs (Suyash Prabhudesai 86 Snehal Kauthankar 29 Yash Kasvankar 50 Arjun Tendulkar 36 Samar Dubhashi 55 n.o.; Nedumankuzhy Basil 2-73 Ankit Sharma 6-115) vs Kerala: 237/2 in 58 overs (Rohan Kunnummal 132 n.o. Abhishek Nair 32 Sachin Baby 37 Salman Nizar 25 n.o.).