Karnataka continued its domination over Mumbai in recent years with a jittery five-wicket win on the third afternoon of the Ranji Trophy Group B tie at the Mumbai Cricket Association’s Bandra-Kurla Complex facility, on Sunday.
The victory - Karnataka’s fourth outright win, first in Mumbai, against the domestic giant in their last six meetings - brought Karnataka’s league campaign back on track after a disappointing outing against Himachal Pradesh in Mysore, last week. On the other hand, Mumbai’s season went from bad to worse, suffering a second successive outright loss at home in as many weeks.
With Mumbai leading by 85 runs overnight and just four wickets left in its second essay, it required the tail to wag in the company of Sarfaraz Khan, who was batting on 53, overnight. However, Prateek Jain’s (4/11) left-arm seam coupled with Sarfaraz’s error of judgement while retaining strike meant Mumbai could add just 40 runs before being bowled out for 149, its fourth consecutive sub-200 total.
A target of 126 was going to be tricky only if Mumbai struck early blows. However, Devdutt Padikkal (50 off 46b, 5x4, 2x6) and R. Samarth’s (34 off 55b, 2x4) quickfire partnership of 78 - their second formidable opening stand in a low-scoring game - took the fizz out of Mumbai’s hopes of a miraculous comeback.
As it happened
By the time Shashank Attarde and Shams Mulani started creating inroads, with the offie Attarde claiming four scalps, it was virtually a losing battle. The formality was eventually completed with Shreyas Gopal square-cutting left-arm spinner Mulani for a boundary almost an hour after lunch.
However, had Sarfaraz - who remained unbeaten on 73 with the willow - not grassed a chance to dismiss Karun Nair at short-leg off Attarde, Mumbai could well have stretched Karnataka even more before celebrating the win. Karun hadn’t opened his account and a bat-pad chance went abegging, with Sarfaraz making a mess of the ball twice. The visiting team was 91 for three then and could well have struggled to cross the line.
Samarth may have been deservingly adjudged the man of the match for his solid knocks in both the innings but it was the left-handed Padikkal who set Karnataka on course. He drove with aplomb and used his wrist effectively. The highlight of his innings were the two maximums - a heave over deep square off fast bowler Tushar Deshpande’s first ball of the day and a huge hit over deep midwicket off Mulani that resulted in the ball being lost.
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