Mithun’s five- for helps K’taka take upper hand
Kolkata, Dec. 17: Abhimanyu Mithun claimed a third five- for of the season as Vidarbha collapsed for 185 before Karnataka were left reeling at 36/ 3 on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy semi- final, here on Sunday.
Mithun returned with brilliant figures of 16- 645- 5, his 11th five- wicket haul, and was finely aided by skipper R. Vinay Kumar ( 2/ 36) as Karnataka bundled out Vidarbha under 200 in 61.4 overs.
But the eight- time Ranji champions were tottering at 36/ 3 in 14 overs when bad light stopped play. Karnataka still trail Vidarbha by 149 runs with four days play still remaining.
Young Rajneesh Gurbani ( 2/ 9) put up a fine display of pace bowling under the shadow of Umesh Yadav ( 1/ 22) as 13 wickets fell on the eventful opening day on a green Eden top.
Karnataka’s in- form openers R. Samarth and Mayank Agarwal returned to the pavilion with the scoreboard reading 21, while D. Nischal was cleaned up for a duck in his comeback match after being beaten by a nice pace variation by Gurbani.
In Pune, atrocious shot selection from skipper Manoj Tiwary and his deputy Sudeep Chatterjee saw Delhi take control of the proceedings, restricting Bengal to
269/ 7 on Day One. On a pitch where there was good carry but no demons, Bengal batsmen batted comfortably till they committed hara- kiri in the final session. Bengal were comfortably placed at 200/ 3 when a couple of innocuous deliveries from left- arm spinner Manan Sharma ( 2/ 37 in 13 overs) changed the complexion of the match. Having added 68 for the fourth wicket, Tiwary looking set on 30, decided to give Manan the charge.
It was bowled with a flatter trajectory and Tiwary charged out. His intention was to loft the spinner over mid on but what he played was a chip shot. Himmat Singh took the easiest of catches at mid on. Scores: Bengal 269/ 7 in 87 overs ( Sudeep Chatterjee 83, Writtick Chatterjee 47, Manan S h a r m a 2 / 3 7 , Navd e e p Saini 2/ 45) vs Delhi. Vidarbha 185 in 61.4 overs ( Aditya Sarwate 47, Abhimanyu Mithun 5/ 45) vs Karnataka 36/ 3 in 14 overs. Sri Lanka: D. Gunathilaka c Sharma b Bumrah 13, U. Tharanga st Dhoni b Yadav 95, S. Samrawickrama c Dhawan b Chahal 42, A. Mathews b Chahal 17, N. Dickwella c Iyer b Yadav 8, A. Gunaratne c Dhoni b Kumar 17, T. Perera lbw b Chahal 6, S. Pathirana c Chahal b Pandya 7, A. Dananjaya b Yadav 1, S. Lakmal lbw b Pandya 1, N. Pradeep ( not out) 0. Extras: ( lb4, w4) 8. Total: ( in 44.5 overs) 215. FoW: 1- 15, 2- 136, 3- 160, 4- 168, 5- 189, 6- 197, 7- 208, 8- 210, 9- 211.
Bowling: Kumar 6.5- 0- 35- 1, Bumrah 8- 1- 39- 1, Pandya 10- 1- 49- 2 ( 1w), Yadav 10- 0- 42- 3 ( 2w), Chahal 10- 3- 46- 3 ( 1w).
India: R. Sharma b Dananjaya 7, S. Dhawan ( not out) 100, S. Iyer c Lakmal b Perera 65, D. Karthik ( not out) 26. Extras: ( b4, lb2, w15) 21. Total: ( for 2 wkts, in 32.1 overs) 219.
FoW: 1- 14, 2- 149.
Bowling: Lakmal 5- 2- 20- 0 ( 1w), Dananjaya 7.1- 053- 1 ( 6w), Mathews 30- 30- 0, Pathirana 4 - 0 - 3 3 - 0 , Pradeep 3- 0- 100, Perera 5- 0- 251, Gunaratne 40 - 3 0 - 0 ( 8 w ) , Gunathilaka 1- 012- 0.