CHENNAI: It took just 156 minutes on the final day for Karnataka to wrap up their Ranji Trophy league outing against Pondicherry with a resounding innings and 20 runs victory.
With the win, Karnataka sealed their berth in the knockouts of the red-ball tournament — to be played after the Indian Premier League. Karnataka finished their three-match Elite Group ‘C’ league engagements with 16 points with two wins and a draw.
Asked to follow-on after compiling 241 in their first essay, Pondicherry started the day at 62/4 and were bowled out for 192 in 61 overs with leggie Shreyas Gopal, who completed 200 first-class wickets on the day, returning 5 for 82, while pacer Prasidh Krishna finished with 3 for 38.
Having lost four wickets on the penultimate day, it was a matter of when Pondicherry would cave in on a windswept Sunday at the SSN College ground here. In the fourth over of the day, skipper Rohit D was the first to get out, attempting a late defence off a ball that came in from Prasidh and crashed into his stumps.
Pavan Deshpande (54 n.o) and G Chiranjeevi (28) then began their rescue act with their 98-ball sixth-wicket association yielding 61 runs. The bowlers erring in length, Shreyas in particular, allowed some big hits from the duo. With Chiranjeevi going after Shreyas, the spinner had the last laugh when the batsman holed out to Prasidh at deep square leg.
Sagar Trivedi (11) and Subodhi Bhati (37) in the company of Deshpande delayed the inevitable. Trivedi lost his stumps to Shreyas, while Bhati was caught by Shreyas off Gowtham at long-on. Shreyas then cleaned up the tail in quick time. Opener Devdutt Padikkal, who scored a fighting 175, was adjudged the man of the match.
While there are grey areas which need to be addressed especially in bowling and fielding, the former champions will take heart from their batting show. In five innings, the batsmen scored as many centuries and seven 50s. KV Siddharth with 358 runs emerged the top run-getter.
SCOPE FOR IMPROVEMENT IN BOWLING
Speaking about the team’s performance, head coach Yere Goud said, “Overall, the performance of the team has been good. The batting has come good consistently after a while. Bowling too has come together well with Prasidh’s match haul of 10 wickets (against Jammu & Kashmir) and the five-wicket efforts of Gowtham and Shreyas in this match.”
On the scope for improvement in the bowling unit, which leaked boundaries aplenty in the last two matches, Goud pointed out, “We have already addressed the issue of needing to cut down boundaries. When we look for after asking the rivals to follow-on, we do concede boundaries but that is an area we need to work on.”
On the challenges of playing the knockouts after the IPL, the former Karnataka and Railways skipper explained, “I don’t know how much time we will get with the players after the IPL, but it also depends on how their respective teams fare. If they don’t qualify for the playoffs, then the players will come back and join the team early. For players who are not a part of any IPL team, we will probably start the camp by the end of April.”
SCOREBOARD
Karnataka (I Innings): 453/8 decl.
Pondicherry (I Innings): 241
Pondicherry (II Innings; o/n: 62/4): Pavan Deshpande (not out) 54, Rohit C b Prasidh 12, G Chiranjeevi c Prasidh b Shreyas 28, Sagar Trivedi b Shreyas 11, Subodh Bhati c Shreyas b Gowtham 37, Ashith c Vidhyadhar b Shreyas 0, Sagar Udesh c Samarth b Shreyas 0. Extras (B-6, LB-1, W-1) 8.
Total (all out; 61 overs) 192.
Fall of wickets: 5-68, 6-129, 7-147, 8-189, 9-190.
Bowling: Prasidh Krishna 12-4-38-3, Vidhyadhar Patil 6-3-9-1, Vidwath Kaverappa 12-5-20-0, KV Siddharth 1-0-5-0, Shreyas Gopal 19-1-82-5, Gowtham K 11-2-31-1.
Brief scores (Group C): Jammu & Kashmir: 259 & 203 all out in 62 overs (Raina 39, Rashid 29, Samad 29, Nazir 30 n.o.; K Sharma 5-64, Shivam Chaudhary 3-42) lost to Railways: 426 & 39/1 in 12.1 overs.
Ranji Trophy Quaterfinalists: Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai, Bengal.
Pre-quarter final: Jharkhand vs Nagaland (March 12 at Kolkata, winner will qualify for quarters).
