Prasanna and Chandrasekhar Paved Way for Karnataka’s Historic Win
Jaipur, March 27: Skipper E.A.S. Prasanna (5 for 45) and Test leg spinner B.S. Chandrasekhar (3 for 56) bowled Karnataka to a 185run victory over Rajasthan to clinch the Ranji Trophy, symbol of Indian cricket supremacy, for the first time in its career on the penultimate day of the fiveday final here today.
The scores: Karnataka 276 and 212; Rajasthan 176 and 127
Since the inception of the Ranji Trophy in 193435, this is the third time that Karnataka has reached the final. On the earlier two occasions in 194142 and 195960. Karnataka (then Mysore) lost to Bombay.
Karnataka wrapped up the match when Chandrasekhar clean bowled the last man C.G. Joshi, for a duck with the total at 127, exactly half an hour before tea. Karnataka would have won the match by a bigger margin and much earlier, but for an elegant 51 by P. Sharma, who put on 54 runs for the third wicket in 55 minutes with captain Hanumanth Singh (20).
Once Hanumant and Sharma left the scene, the remaining Rajasthan batsmen went down meekly to the wily Prasanna and the deadly Chandrasekhar.
For the home team, which required 313 runs to win the Ranji Trophy for the first time, it was the eighth unsuccessful attempt in the final It had lost to Bombay in the earlier appearances.
All kudos to the entire Karnataka team tor its grand achievement, but full marks belong to Prasanna, who with his astute captaincy, was mainly responsible for his side’s victory over 15 times champion Bombay in the semi finals.
Prasanna who flighted the ball well and varied his length effectively, finished today with a match analysis of nine for 101.