The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Karnataka faces stiff target

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Wednesday, Nov 10, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Karnataka faces stiff target

By Our Special Correspondent

CENTRE OF ATTRACTION: Sunil Joshi was the toast of Karnataka, finishing with a five-wicket haul.

KOLKATA, NOV. 9. The Bengal-Karnataka Ranji Trophy Elite Group A game is interestingly poised. Bengal needs nine Karnataka wickets on the fourth and final day on Wednesday to win outright, while Karnataka's target is 302 in 90 overs on a pitch that has variable bounce and turn.

In a circumstance like the one faced by these two teams at the Jadavpur University Campus (Salt Lake), the fielding side should normally hold all the aces. The last two sessions of play on the third day on Tuesday, gave enough indication of the pitch slowing down. Patience and initiative are the two virtues the remaining Karnataka batsmen would need in plenty to turn the tables on Bengal.

Karnataka managed to dismiss Bengal in its second innings for 206, 26 minutes after tea on the penultimate day. In the remaining 18 overs, Karnataka lost the wicket of its captain J. Arunkumar, for 13, to a well-judged catch at deep backward square-leg by Sourasish Lahiri off a Shib Sankar Paul bouncer.

The other opener, Barrington Rowland, and Sujith Somasundar held out with some problem to remain on 13 and 12 runs respectively.

In the morning, Bengal was reduced to 89 for five. This included Indian captain Sourav Ganguly who fell for five driving uppishly. He was taken at mid-off by K. Shyam Ponnappa off left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi.

Shukla bats well

All-rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla was pushed to bring off one of his rescue acts. He rose to the occasion splendidly once again with a punishing knock of 60 (134m, 114b, 9x4) and added 57 runs for the sixth wicket with Sanjib Sanyal (21). This association helped lift the side go past 200 mark, thanks also to sizeable contributions from the tail-enders.

Joshi was the pick of the Karnataka bowlers grabbing five wickets, four from the pavilion side, the end which also enabled Bengal left-armer Murtaza Lodhgar to achieve his career-best haul. This was Joshi's 18th five-wicket haul.

The pitch behaved oddly offering low bounce to medium pacers and turn and bounce to the spinners. As former Test player Arun Lal put it, "it would be easier to tackle the turning track than the pitch which offered inconsistent turn and bounce."'

The scores:

Bengal — 1st innings: 315.

Karnataka — 1st innings: 179

Bengal — 2nd innings: A. Das (run out) 3; D. Dasgupta b Ganesh 8; D. Gandhi lbw b Joshi 29; R. Gavaskar st. Naidu b Joshi 24; S. Ganguly c Ponnappa b Joshi 5; L.R. Shukla c Somasundar b Joshi 60; S. Sanyal c Naidu b Joshi 21; S. Lahiri c Somasundar b Ganesh 9; M. Lodhgar c Naidu b Vinay Kumar 22; R. Bose (not out) 7; S.S. Paul b Vinay Kumar 0, Extras (b-4, lb-8, nb-1, penalty-5) 18, Total (all out in 71.6 overs) 206.

Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-14, 3-47, 4-55, 5-89, 6-146, 7-169, 8-169, 9-206.

Karnataka bowling: Joshi 29-12-62-5, Ganesh 19-5-53-2, Vinay Kumar 15-5-31-2, Binny 2-0-12-0, Patel 7-0-31-0.

Karnataka — 2nd innings: J. Arunkumar c Lahiri b Paul 13; B. Rowland (batting) 13; S. Somasundar (batting) 12, Extras (lb-2, nb-1) 3, Total (for one wkt.) 41.

Fall of wicket: 1-16.

Bengal bowling: Paul 7-3-16-1, Bose 5-2-8-0, Lodhgar 5-1-13-0, Lahiri 1-0-2-0.

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