Towards the fag end of play on day three, Karnataka was fighting to take the first-innings lead. Less than two sessions later, the visitors walked away with an emphatic 10-wicket win on Thursday, and a bonus point to boot. Host Railways was left wondering what it needs to do in the next four days, ahead of its final Elite Group B game.
Turning point
Throughout this season, Karnataka has fallen back on its bowling unit to avoid defeats. Through this period, Ronit More had played second-fiddle to the other quicks. That changed an hour after lunch, the 28th over of Railways’ second innings being the turning point.
Dinesh Mor skied a bouncer to Devdutt Padikkal at gully off the first ball; Avinash Yadav saw his off stump go cartwheeling and Pradeep Poojar found the ball hitting his pads in front off the last ball.
Roar
And Railways became 63 for eight from 63 for five. The roar that accompanied each of those wickets was testimony to how much it meant to More and his team.
A ball later opener Mrunal Devdhar — top-scorer with 38 in a lonely battle — edged to K.V. Siddharth at first slip. Railways lost its last five wickets for 16 runs to be bowled out for 79 but the rot began much before.
On a day when the sun shone bright, the slight nip in the morning helped the ball move through air and Abhimanyu Mithun and Prateek Jain kept Railways on the backfoot.
“We were not really sure (of a win) but we had a plan to make the batsmen play and executed it well. Mithun and Prateek got early wickets which was crucial and then we kept the momentum going,” More said later.
Too defensive
Railways coach Yousuf Ali Khan blamed his batsmen for being too defensive. “Our batting has repeatedly collapsed. Losing by 10 wickets and playing two innings in just over two sessions of play is not acceptable,” he said.
The day began with Karnataka trying to build on its slender 17-run first-innings lead and managed to extend it to 29 before the innings wrapped up.
The hara-kiri by Railways batsmen meant the lead was more than enough and with just 51 to win, makeshift opener Rohan Kadam and Padikkal cantered past the total in 8.2 overs, just before tea.
The scores: Railways — 1st innings: 182.
Karnataka — 1st innings: R. Samarth b Mishra 0, Devdutt Padikkal c Rawat b Sangwan 55, Rohan Kadam lbw b Mishra 2, Karun Nair lbw b Sangwan 17, K.V. Siddharth lbw b Sangwan 4, S. Sharath b Pradeep 62, Shreyas Gopal c Saurabh b Avinash 21, K. Gowtham c Tyagi b Mishra 41, Abhimanyu Mithun b Mishra 1, Ronit More b Mishra 0, Prateek Jain (not out) 8; Extras (b-4, lb-2, w-1, nb-2): 9; Total (in 71.1 overs): 211.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-21, 3-57, 4-65, 5-85, 6-110, 7-174, 8-177, 9-177.
Railways bowling: Mishra 20-4-70-5, Poojar 15.1-5-29-1, Sangwan 18-3-57-3, Avinash 12-0-36-1, Tyagi 6-0-13-0.
Railways — 2nd innings: Mrunal Devdhar c Siddharth b Mithun 38, Ashish Sehrawat c Siddharth b Prateek 0, Saurabh Singh lbw b Mithun 0, Arindam Ghosh c Sharath b Mithun 3, Mahesh Rawat c Sharath b Ronit 5, Harsh Tyagi c Sharath b Ronit 8, Dinesh Mor c Padikkal b Ronit 6, Avinash Yadav b Ronit 0, Pradeep Poojar lbw b Ronit 0, Amit Mishra c Prateek b Ronit 8, Himanshu Sangwan (not out) 8; Extras (b-1, lb-1, nb-1) 3; Total (in 30 overs): 79.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-1, 3-15, 4-20, 5-43, 6-63, 7-63, 8-63, 9-63.
Karnataka bowling: Mithun 9-3-17-3, Prateek 10-4-28-1, Ronit 11-3-32-6.
Karnataka — 2nd innings: R. Kadam (not out) 27, D. Padikkal (not out) 24; Total (for no loss in 8.2 overs): 51.
Railways bowling: Mishra 3-0-20-0, Sangwan 3-0-17-0, Poojar 1.2-0-9-0, Avinash 1-0-5-0.
Points: Karnataka 7 (24), Railways 0 (13).
