Arindam Ghosh’s brilliant century (105) and Mohammad Saif’s delightful 82 was not enough to help Railways overhaul Karnataka's huge first-innings total of 481 as the former fell short by 55 runs on the third day of the Elite Group C Ranji Trophy match on Saturday.
It was always going to be a tall order for Railways, but Ghosh and Saif’s 96-run stand for the fourth wicket gave their side a glimmer of hope. However, Karnataka pacers Ronit More and Vidyadhar Patil chipped in with crucial wickets to bowl out Railways for 426 and help their side take the crucial first-innings lead.
Ghosh, who was unbeaten on 78 overnight, played cautiously in the first session, preferring to take singles till he reached 91. From there, he first hit Gowtham for a six over mid-wicket before stepping out and lofting pacer More straight back over his head to bring his hundred in style.
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At the other end, after a watchful start, the left-handed Saif began playing his strokes freely with three elegantly played straight drives off the pacers. He was then dropped on 40 by Mayank Agarwal off More just after taking the second new ball.
After his half-century, he showed his aggression by stepping out to hit Shreyas for a six and then launched into Vidyadhar Patil.
He hit the medium-pacer for four consecutive boundaries that included a straight drive, two pulls towards square leg and a flick down to the fine leg fence, racing from 66 to 82.
However, his aggression eventually caught up with him as he was stumped trying to take on off-spinner K. Gowtham.
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Debutant Yuvraj Singh, who took a fifer on the second day, showed he was handy with the bat too and made a valuable 48.
Yuvraj and Avinash Yadav added 60 for the eighth-wicket stand and Railways was in the hunt when the two were in the middle. Just at the stroke of tea, Yuvraj was caught behind off More who then cleaned up the tail with three wickets.
In the second innings, Karnataka ended the day on 63 for one and has a lead of 118 runs with Agarwal unbeaten on 37.
Scorecard
Karnataka (1st innings): 481
Railways (1st innings): Mrunal Devdhar c Sharath b Gowtham 56, Vivek Singh c Sharath b Gowtham 59, Shivam Choudhary c Padikkal b Gowtham 8, Arindam Ghosh lbw b Shreyas 105, Mohammed Saif st. Sharath b Gowtham 84, Upendra Yadav c Siddharth b Vidyadhar 12, Karn Sharma c Sharath b Vidyadhar 6, Yuvraj Singh c Sharath b More 48, Avinash Yadav c Padikkal b More 22, Amit Mishra not out 4, Himanshu Sangwan c Sharath b More 2
Extras (lb-11, b-4, nb-3, w-2): 20
Total (in 128.3 overs): 426
Fall of wickets: 1-110, 2-118, 3-198, 4-294, 5-323, 6-329, 7-359, 8- 419, 9-420
Bowling: Vyshak 22-4-72-0, Vidyadhar 18-1-77-2, Gowtham 41-10-127-4, More 27.3-9-67-3, Shreyas 20-1-68-1
Karnataka (2nd innings): Mayank Agarwal batting 39, Devdutt Padikkal b Mishra 4, R Samarth batting 20
Extras: 0
Total (for one wicket in 17 overs): 63
Fall of wickets: 1-11.
Railways bowling: Mishra 7-2-18-1, Yuvraj 5-0-24-0, Shivam 3-0-19-0, Avinash 2-0-2-0.
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