Another meek surrender with the bat in the Ranji Trophy left Pondicherry staring down the barrel on the second day of its Elite Group D match against Madhya Pradesh (MP) here at the CAP Ground 2 on Saturday.
Saransh Jain and Kumar Kartikeya triggered mighty collapses on either side of the tea break and picked nine wickets between them as the host failed abjectly in the trial by spin to concede a 138-run deficit.
Though MP crawled to 49 for two in 23 overs by Stumps, its 187-run lead is already a bridge too far for Pondicherry.
After Kartikeya beat Jay Pande’s forward defensive stride to trap the batter in front and end his 40-run association for the second wicket with Paras Ratnaparkhe, Jain tore through Pondicherry’s middle-order, picking a wicket each in four successive overs.
He castled Ratnaparkhe - Pondicherry’s most assured batter - with one that skidded through. In his following over, he had Paras Dogra leg-before with a flighted delivery even as the batter insisted he had got some bat on it. Parameeshwaran S, undone by uneven bounce, was caught at short-leg, while Krishna Pandey swung for the fences only to find the fielder at long-on.
Arun Karthick and Sidak Singh’s brief defiance ended after tea as Kartikeya nabbed three wickets in the first over of the final session.
Pondicherry’s innings started on a sour note, with Akash Kargave given leg-before off an Avesh Khan delivery that seemed to pitch outside leg-stump, and the home side’s fortunes hardly changed since.
Gourav Yadav offered some hope in the morning as he cleaned up MP’s tail to continue his scorching form and remain on top of the tournament’s wickets chart with 28 scalps in six innings.
However, even though MP could only add 14 runs to its overnight score for the loss of three wickets, Pondicherry’s celebrations were subdued, most likely in anticipation of the imminent batting meltdown that was in store.
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