JOIN USRailways bowlers produced a disciplined effort to dominate Karnataka on the opening day of their Group ‘A’ Ranji Trophy game at the KSCA Navule stadium here on Saturday.
Apart from the 112-run stand between D Nischal (52, 172b, 4x4) and KV Siddharth (69, 185b, 6x4, 2x6), there was nothing to write home about for Karnataka. Senior campaigners like Manish Pandey (4, 7b), R Samarth (3b, 21b) and Shreyas Gopal (20b, 37b, 2x4) failed to deliver as the hosts were reduced to 208 for nine at stumps.
Put into bat, Karnataka got off to a disastrous start. Within the first ten overs, they lost their top three batsmen for just 17 runs. Pandey, stepping in as the captain for the injured R Vinay Kumar (sore knee), couldn’t shine in his first game of the season.
Medium pacer Amit Mishra (3/57) and left-arm spinner Avinash Yadav (3/43) were the best bowlers for Railways. The duo bowled tirelessly in the second session and hardly offered loose balls. The conditions favoured the medium pacers in the morning and Avinash and Karan Thakur (2/41) made full use of it.
Karnataka recovered through Nischal and Siddharth. Nischal received two reprieves off Avinash but eventually got out to the right-arm medium pacer. Siddharth fell for a nothing shot to Avinash and his dismissal triggered the lower-order collapse.
Shreyas and K Gowtham were sent back by Mishra in the 71st over. Karnataka further slumped to 178 /9 and a total of 200 looked a fair distance away. However, Sharath Srinivas showed grit to score a 60-ball 28 and forge a 30-run unbroken alliance with Prasidh Krishna (2, 21b).
Curator overwaters pitch
Meanwhile, BCCI’s North Zone curator Sunil Chauhan overwatered the Feroz Shah Kotla pitch and then, breaching protocol, left the venue before the start of Delhi-Madhya Pradesh match on Saturday, his indiscretion leading to a delay of two and half hours. Despite perfect weather conditions, the match began in the second session.
As per BCCI rules, the neutral curators are sent to prepare pitches so that home teams cannot take any advantage, and they are only supposed to leave after lunch on the first day, when local curator takes charge.