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Friday, Jan 26, 2007
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Karnataka recovers

S. Sabanayakan

KOLKATA: Karnataka saw close of the third day's play of the five-day Ranji Trophy semifinal against Bengal at the Eden Gardens at 317 for five — an overall lead of 168 runs here on Thursday. At stumps, Chandrasekhar Raghu and skipper Yere Goud remained undefeated on 78 and 14 runs respectively.

Only five wickets fell on Thursday. The pitch played true but offered slow pace and low bounce.

Karnataka, after its disastrous first innings score of 89, needed to build a big total in the second .

Reasonable start

The script unfolded as Karnataka wished. The two undefeated opening pair of Bharath Chipli and Barrington Rowland continued from where they left off on Wednesday and put on a superb 151 runs for the opening wicket to put Karnataka on the way to stronger position.

Resuming on overnight score of 97 for no loss, both Chipli and Rowland added a further 54 runs before Ranadeb Bose induced Rowland (52, 204m, 141b, 7x4) to nick one down the leg side to Deep Dasgupta. Chipli too was removed by Bose, catching the lanky batsman leg before for a well made 95 (224m, 138b, 16x4). The two quick successes were the highlights for Bengal in the first session in which 107 runs were added in 34 overs.

Newcomer K.B. Pawan and Chandrasekhar Raghu got together to deny Bengal another breakthrough and put on 83 runs for the third wicket. Bengal employed the leg stump attack in a bid to stop the run flow and in the second session it gave away only 67 runs in 32 overs. Pawan was the lone wicket to fall during the session caught by Laxmi Ratan Shukla at short mid-wicket off a Rohan Gavaskar full toss.

Bengal claimed the second new ball in the 96th over after tea and the two Bengal pacers, Bose and Sourav Sarkar opened to a fine line and length.

Raghu, who was batting with a lot of responsibility, lost two partners, V.S. Thilak Naidu and B. Akhil cheaply. Sarkar claimed both the wickets with inswingers. The ball which claimed Naidu would, undoubtedly, be the best ball of the day. It moved sharply from well outside the off-stump to take the edge on the way to Dasgupta well beyond the leg-stump.

Raghu was confidence personified during the knock. Correct in defence and quick to spot the loose ball, Raghu exhibited infinite patience to blunt the Bengal attack with clean shots. In his 294-minute vigil, the right-hander played 208 balls with effortless ease and hit 12 delectable boundaries. He promised more on the fourth day to reduce the chances of Bengal in this game.

The scores: Karnataka — 1st innings: 89.

Bengal — 1st innings: 238.

Karnataka — 2nd innings: B. Chipli lbw b Bose 95, B. Rowland c Dasgupta b Bose 52, K.B. Pawan c Shukla b Gavaskar 43, C. Raghu (batting) 78, V.S. Thilak Naidu c Dasgupta b Sarkar 17, B. Akhil lbw b Sarkar 0, Yere Goud (batting) 14. Extras (b-1, lb-5, w-9, nb-3): 18. Total (for five in 120 overs): 317.

Fall of wickets: 1-151, 2-164, 3-247, 4-271, 5-271.

Bengal bowling: R. Bose 34-9-87-2, S. Sarkar 25-7-63-2, L.R. Shukla 1-0-9-0, A. Dinda 20-3-49-0, S. Lahiri 19-4-61-0, R. Gavaskar 8-3-10-1, M. Tiwary 13-4-32-0.

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