The Ranji Trophy Group-A tie between Karnataka and Delhi petered out to a draw as expected at the Alur ground near here on Sunday. But that was not before the host snuffed out Delhi’s first-innings resistance, largely owing to A. Mithun’s splendid bowling and R. Samarth’s excellent fielding in the first hour of the final day’s play.
Karnataka, after terminating Delhi’s innings at 301 to secure the first-innings lead, finished on 235 for three in its second essay, before play was called off, with first-innings centurion Stuart Binny being named man-of-the-match.
The three points takes Karnataka to 23 from four games and, save for a catastrophe, assures it a place in the knock-out stage. Delhi remains second on the table with 17 points.
Skipper Vinay Kumar did not enforce the follow-on, ostensibly to avoid risking his bowlers on a largely unresponsive strip. The state of the pitch, however, did not affect Mithun’s performance earlier as he ripped Delhi apart in a six-over spell (6-3-14-4), allowing the visitors to add only 24 runs to its overnight total.
It took all of three balls for Mithun to strike. Milind Kumar was caught by a diving Samarth at gully. Samarth was at it again, superbly running out Manan Sharma from forward short-leg for a first-ball duck. When Samarth caught Gautam Gambhir at gully two overs later, off Mithun again, the wheels had come off for Delhi.
K.L. Rahul dropping Navdeep Saini at first slip was perhaps the only jarring note in an otherwise glitch-free morning. But he more than made amends later with an entertaining knock of 92 (109b), studded with nine fours and two sixes.
It was a chanceless innings, and that too just days to go for India’s first Test against Sri Lanka in Kolkata. But he will rue the way he was dismissed: beaten by a direct hit from Nitish Rana from backward point while lumbering down the pitch for what should have been a straightforward single.
Manish Pandey and Karun Nair then combined for 61 largely unspectacular runs for the fourth wicket. The holiday crowd, after being treated to some fine stroke-making from Rahul, wanted more.
But Karnataka had a job to do, and it did it rather well.
The scores:
Karnataka — 1st innings: 649
Delhi — 1st innings: Unmukt Chand c Gautam b Binny 16, Gautam Gambhir c Samarth b Mithun 144, Dhruv Shorey b Mithun 64, Nitish Rana c Mithun b Binny 9, Rishabh Pant b Gowtham 41, Milind Kumar c Samarth b Mithun 10, Manan Sharma run out 0, Vikas Tokas c Mayank b Mithun 11, Navdeep Saini lbw b Vinay 4, Vikas Mishra (not out) 0, Kulwant Khejroliya c Rahul b Mithun 0, Extras (nb-2) 2; Total (in 95 overs) 301.
Fall of wickets: 1-39, 2-149, 3-166, 4-249, 5-277, 6-277, 7-286, 8-301, 9-301.
Karnataka bowling: Vinay Kumar 21-4-70-1, A. Mithun 23-7-70-5, Stuart Binny 13-2-39-2, Shreyas Gopal 16-2-64-0, K. Gowtham 20-4-46-1, Karun Nair 2-0-12-0.
Karnataka — 2nd innings: K.L. Rahul run out 92, R. Samarth c Rana b Manan 47, Mayank Agarwal b Saini 23, Karun Nair (not out) 33, Manish Pandey (not out) 34, Extras (nb-1, b-4, lb-1) 6; Total (for three wkts in 63 overs) 235
Fall of wickets: 1-121, 2-161, 3-174.
Delhi bowling: Vikas Tokas 9-0-38-0, Navdeep Saini 9-0-28-1, Manan Sharma 17-1-47-1, Milind 10-0-40-0, Vikas Mishra 8-1-25-0, Dhruv Shorey 3-0-24-0, Nitish Rana 5-0-24-0, Unmukt Chand 2-0-4-0.