Rain forced the abandonment of Karnataka’s Vijay Hazare Trophy match against Railways, which put paid to the host’s hopes of entering the knockout rounds.
With just one win in six matches, defending champion Karnataka (8 points) has no chance of finishing in the top-five of the Elite ‘A’ and Elite ‘B’ groups. The side has two more matches to play, but there’s not much more than pride at stake.
As it happened
Karnataka has been let down by a poor batting show in this tournament. R. Samarth is the only man to score a century (102 against Baroda), while Mayank Agarwal (66 against Mumbai) is the only other batter to go past the 50-mark.
Trouble began in the opening encounter, against Maharashtra, when the unit made a mess of a routine chase. After keeping the rival down to 245, Karnataka lost its way to finish on 107 for six in a rain-affected outing. The crucial run-outs of Karun Nair and C.M. Gautam, in particular, led to a 57-run loss (via VJD method).
A marauding Mumbai took no prisoners in the next match. Centuries from Shreyas Iyer and Ajinkya Rahane – to go with a 53-ball 60 from Prithvi Shaw – powered Mumbai to an imposing 362. It was too high a mountain to climb for Karnataka.
READ:
Delhi continues winning juggernaut
A third loss came at the hands of Baroda, as Karnataka’s sub-par total of 237 was never going to be enough on a friendly Alur pitch.
The horror start to the campaign led to big changes in the squad. Manish Pandey was named the skipper in place of R. Vinay Kumar, while Gautam and all-rounder Stuart Binny were left out. The move seemed to work, as Karnataka recorded its first victory, against Vidarbha. There would, however, be no fairytale comeback run after this lone success.
Karnataka suffered from bad luck as well. Matches against arguably two of the weakest teams – Railways and Goa – were abandoned due to rain.
Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair and Prasidh Krishna were picked in the Board President’s XI side after the Baroda outing, but by then, Karnataka was stuck in a deep hole.
For the newly-appointed coaching pair of Yere Goud and S. Arvind, there is plenty of work to be done.
Comments
Follow Us
SHARE