Bengal stepped off the gas to collect three points with a draw against Karnataka in their Elite ‘C’ Ranji Trophy encounter at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Saturday.
The visitors took no chances on the final day, batting beyond lunch to leave Karnataka with an impossible target of 364.
Karnataka lost openers Mayank Agarwal and Kishan Bedare inside the first six overs, before R. Smaran (35 not out), Shreyas Gopal (32) and Manish Pandey (30 not out) took the home team to safe waters.
Karnataka, with nine points from four matches, slipped out of the top two in the Elite ‘C’ points table. Bengal is one place behind with eight points from four outings.
Resuming on 127 for three, Bengal did not see merit in forcing a win. Sudip Kumar (101 n.o., 193b, 12x4, 2x6) recorded his fifth First Class century.
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Pacer Vidyadhar Patil kept a probing line to prise out Shahbaz Ahmed and Avilin Ghosh, but a confident knock from Wriddhiman Saha (63 n.o., 70b, 7x4, 1x6) left no room for a Karnataka comeback.
Bengal declared on 283 for five soon after Sudip reached his hundred. With less than two sessions of play remaining, a draw was a foregone conclusion.
Karnataka captain Mayank Agarwal conceded that the team had been affected by a “few soft dismissals,” and that the batters were keen to take corrective action.
Karnataka has also been forced to contend with the absence of regulars like K.L. Rahul, V. Vyshak and Devdutt Padikkal, who are away on international duty.
“We want our players to play a higher grade of cricket. We want to keep fighting and find ways to win games for Karnataka. If we get a win in the next game, then suddenly things look different,” Mayank said.
Karnataka next takes on Uttar Pradesh at Lucknow on November 13. Bengal faces Madhya Pradesh at Indore.
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