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Saurashtra’s batsmen to the fore

Nandakumar Marar

Pujara comes up with yet another match-winning century

— Photo: Vivek Bendre

PROLIFIC PERFORMER: Saurashtra’s Cheteshwar Pujara, who has had a fantastic season so far, acknowledges the cheers after reaching his match-winning century on Monday.

MUMBAI: With a superb display of team-work, Saurashtra, faced with an imposing target of 325 for an outright victory over Karnataka, chased down the 315 required on the fourth and final day for a five-wicket win here on Monday.

The reward for some sensible batting by Sitanshu Kotak (87, 147 balls), supported by Cheteshwar Pujara (112 not out, 224 balls), Ravindra Jadeja (55, 41 balls) and Jaidev Shah (55 not out, 43 balls) was a semifinal spot for the second consecutive season.

Aware of first innings mistakes by its batsmen, which restricted the total to 189, Saurashtra focussed on keeping wickets intact against the Karnataka swing and spin bowlers on the Brabourne Stadium track before launching into an onslaught.

Big stand

As expected, Kotak anchored the innings, allowing Pujara (15 x 4) the freedom to engage in strokeplay during a 163-run stand for the fourth wicket. Jadeja swung the match in his team’s favour with clean hitting (eight fours), making way for captain Jaidev to tame the bowling (9 x 4, 1x 6) and help the side canter home in 79 overs.

Karnataka got chances to trip Saurashtra’s run chase. When on 57 (148 for three), Pujara was tested by fast bowler R. Vinay Kumar with bounce but Raghu could not hold on at slip. Veteran left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi had an appeal for catch turned down against the same batsmen, after Pawan at silly point dived to grab the ball lobbing off wicket-keeper Thilak Naidu’s shoulder.

Pujara started with three boundaries in a row, got bogged down midway and picked up runs from singles before unleashing his full range of shots to notch a century off 212 balls in 305 minutes.

Final assault

Jadeja’s assault on the bowling was breathtaking, footwork and bat speed standing out as the left-hander cleared the ropes with ease. Though the all-rounder (636 runs from seven league at an average of 79.50) had a soft dismissal, he had snuffed out Karnataka hopes by taking Saurashtra closer to victory at 253 for five.

The final assault came from Jaidev, effortlessly hitting through the line against swing and spin on a sporting wicket on which Vinay Kumar (three for 84) and Raghu (two for 66) posed questions to the batsmen even on the fourth day.

The scores:

Karnataka — 1st innings: 305.

Saurashtra — 1st innings: 189.

Karnataka — 2nd innings: 208.

Saurashtra — 2nd innings: C. Pathak c Naidu b Vinay Kumar 0, B. Chauhan c Akhil b Vinay Kumar 6, K. Makwana c Naidu b Vinay Kumar 0, S. Kotak c & b Raghu 87, C. Pujara (not out) 112, R. Jadeja c Gautam b Raghu 55, J. Shah (not out) 55, Extras (b-4, lb-8) 12; Total ( for five wkts. in 79 overs): 327.

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-4, 3-13, 4-176, 5-253.

Karnataka bowling: R. Vinay Kumar 20-1-84-3, S. Aravind 11-4-34-0, N. Aiyappa 7-1-37-0, S. Joshi 27-6-84-0, B. Akhil 3-1-10-0, C. Raghu 11-1-66-2.

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