Ranji Trophy | Karun Nair, Manish Pandey see Karnataka through to semis, Vidarbha in driver’s seat against Uttarakhand

01/18/2019

Karun Nair and Mannish Pandey scored unbeaten fifties as Karnataka defeated Rajasthan on Day 4 of the Ranji Trophy quarter-final game in Bengaluru. In another quarter-final, defending champions Vidarbha need five more wickets on the final day to register a win against newcomers Uttarakhand.

Karnataka vs Rajasthan

Brief Scores: Karnataka 263/10 (Vinay Kumar 83*, Krishnamurthy Siddharth 52, Dega Nischal 5*; Rahul Chahar 5/93, TM Ul-Haq 3/50) and 185/4 (Manish Pandey 87*, Karun Nair 61*; AV Chowdhury 2/32) beats Rajasthan 224/10 (Rajesh Bishnoi 79, Mahipal Lomror 50; Abhimanyu Mithun 3/48, Krishnappa Gowtham 3/54) and 222/10 (Robin Bist 44, Mahipal Lomror 42; K Gowtham 4/54, Shreyas Gopal 3/52) by six wickets

Chasing 185 to win against Rajasthan so as to book a place in the semi-finals, Karnataka had an easy outing on the fourth day in Bengaluru. Manish Pandey and Karun Nair combined together for the fifth wicket after the dismissal of overnight batsman Ronit More (8) to ensure a six-wicket win for the home side. Pandey and Nair added 129 runs for the unbeaten fifth wicket. Skipper Pandey top-scored with 87* and his innings was studded with 14 boundaries and two sixes. On the other hand, Nair amassed 61* off 129 balls to see the team through.

Vinay Kumar was adjudged Man of the Match for his crucial unbeaten knock of 83 runs and two wickets in the first innings of the match. Karnataka will now meet either Uttar Pradesh or Saurashtra in the semi-final on January 24.

Vidarbha vs Uttarakhand

Brief Scores: Uttarakhand 355/10 (Saurabh Rawat 108, Avneesh Sudha 91; Umesh Yadav 4/90, Akshay Wakhare 2/46) & 152/5 (Karanveer Kaushal 76, Avneesh Sudha 28; Umesh Yadav 3/22) trails Vidarbha 629/10 (Wasim Jaffer 206, Sanjay Ramaswamy 141; DK Sharma 3/101) by 122 runs

After bowling Vidarbha out for a huge score of 629 in the first innings, Uttarakhand were trailing by 122 runs in the second one at stumps on Day 4. Vineet Saxena (27) was the first to depart after a good 72-run stand for the opening wicket by Saxena and Karanveer Kaushal. However, wickets kept on falling at the other end as Umesh Yadav and Aditya Sarvate didn’t allow the Uttarakhand batsmen to settle down in the middle.

Kaushal was the only batsman who scored a fifty for them in the second innings so far. Avnish Sudha and Vaibhav got out during the fag end of the day as stumps were drawn with Uttarakhand on 152/5 in the second innings.

Uttar Pradesh vs Saurashtra

Brief scores: Saurashtra 208/10 (Harvik Desai 84, Prerak Mankad 67; Yash Dayal 4/55, Shivam Mavi 3/40) & 195/2 (Harvik Desai 83*, Snell Patel 72; Akshdeep Nath 1/5, Shivam Mavi 1/60) needs 177 to win vs Uttar Pradesh 385/10 (Rinku Singh 150, Saurabh Kumar 55; Jaydev Unadkat 5/86, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 3-111) & 194/10 (Mohammad Saif 48, Rahul Rawat 37; Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 4/53, Chetan Sakariya 3/38)

Saurashtra bowlers claimed the two remaining wickets of Uttar Pradesh in the second innings and are now chasing 372 to get a place in the semi-finals. Earlier on the penultimate day, UP were bowled out for 194 and at stumps and now Saurashtra are at 195/2 with Harvik Desai (83) and Kamlesh Makwana (4) in the middle.

Saurashtra were off to a great start in the run-chase with Desai and Snell Patel (72) adding 132 runs for the opening wicket before Patel was picked up by pacer Shivam Mavi in the 44th over. Vishvarajsingh Jadeja also showed good understanding at the wicket but Akshdeep Nath got rid of him for 35 reducing Saurashtra to 187/2. With eight wickets in hand and Cheteshwar Pujara to follow, Saurashtra are on the top of the game as they will want to make a short work of the chase on the final day tomorrow.