With their fate in their own hands, hosts Jharkhand didn’t get they kind of start they must have been looking for in their final group league fixture of Ranji Trophy Elite Group C.
Opting to bat first at Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpur on Tuesday, the Virat Singh-led side failed to take any home advantage as they found themselves looking down the barrel at stumps on Day 1 against heavyweights and group leaders Karnataka.
Spinners duo K Gowtham and Shreyas Gopal bowled in tandem and shared seven wickets between them to bowl out Jharkhand for a paltry 164 runs in 65th over of their first innings just before tea.
In reply, the visitors lost both their openers Ravikumar Samarth (31 runs of 67 baslls) and captain Mayank Agarwal (20 off 26) before reaching 80 for two wickets in 27 overs when the stumps were drawn. Shahbaz Nadeem got the wicket of Agarwal first while young off-spinner Anukul Roy returned Samarth next. Jharkhand are just 84 runs ahead.
With Devdutt Padikkal (20 batting off 44 balls) and Nikin Jose (8 off 25) holding fort, and batters like Manish Pandey, BR Sharath, Gowtham and Gopal to follow in a long batting tail which Karnataka possess, the immediate future doesn’t look bright for the Shahbaz Nadeem-led bowling attack.
Earlier, Jharkhand batters could never settle against a potent Karnataka attack with pacers V Kaverappa and V Koushik bowling a tight line and length from beginning. Opener Kumar Deobrat fell as 23-year-old Kaverappa induced an edge off the right hander behind the stumps to give the visitors their first breakthrough.
Thereafter it was Gowtham, Karnataka’s wrecker in chief, as the all-rounder scalped the next four wickets to fall to return with 4 for 61 from his 24 overs. The veteran off-spinner’s victims were opener Aryaman Sen, Jharkhand skipper Virat Singh, Saurabh Tiwary (golden duck) and Kumar Suraj as the hosts were reduced to 86/5 in 32nd over.
In-from young wicketkeeper-batter Kumar Kushagra tried to wage a lone battle playing 106 balls for a patient 37 but didn’t get enough support from the other end barring Nadeem (22 off 38) as their 38-run stand for the seventh wicket — Jharkhand’s highest partnership on Day 1 — came to an end with Nadeem returning a catch to Agarwal off part-time spinner Shubhang Hegde’s bowling. Kushagra was the ninth man to fall.
Brief scores: Jharkhand 164 all out in 64.2 overs (K Kushagra 37, K Suraj 22, S Nadeem 22; K Gowtham 4/61, S Gopal 3/18, V Kaverappa 2/34). Karnataka 80/2 in 27 overs (R Samarth 31; A Roy 1/12, S Nadeem 1/40).
