Rahul Dravid spent about five hours on the field, deployed his resources shrewdly, held three catches, effected a smart run out and then struck the ball as dictated by his whim and eventually led Karnataka to a hands down win against Haryana in the quarterfinals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy cricket tournament at the Moti Bagh Palace ground here on Tuesday.
Chasing a modest 224, Dravid took guard after the dismissals of Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey.
The Karnataka skipper's arrival onto the scene of action in as early as the eight over owed itself to the termination of a breezy knock from Pandey that exuded destructive intent in the form of two towering sixes and as many fours.
Left-arm spinner Sanjay Badhwar, who had castled Uthappa, was a trifle fortunate that Pandey's attempt to steer the ball on the off side went straight into the hands of a crouched Rana at short backward-point.
Severe response
Quite excited at a chance to bowl at Dravid, Budhwar finished his almost 15m run up and hit the deck hard for an intended short ball. Perhaps Dravid too anticipated a short ball or a bouncer, but his response to the first ball he received was severe. In total control, he dispatched the ball with a hook shot to the backward square-leg fence.
After opening his account with a boundary, Dravid 77 (65b, 9x4) and Ganesh Satish 70 (69b, 9x4, 1x 6) raised a rousing 119 runs that gave a decisive direction to Karnataka's objective.
Vinay strikes
Earlier, R. Vinay Kumar scalped three wickets in his opening spell that straight away dashed Haryana's hopes of posting a formidable total after being asked to bat.
Thanks to the 101-run stand from the seventh-wicket pair of Rana 81 (90b, 6x4, 2x6) and Dhruv, Haryana recovered from a tottering 89 for six to 224 before Dravid's direct hit caught Yajvendra Chahal short of his ground.
The scores:
Haryana: M. Dagar c Appanna b Vinay Kumar 0, R. Dewan b Vinay Kumar 17, N. Saini c Pandey b Vinay Kumar 7, P. Sahu c Gautam b Akshay 24, S. Bamel b Bhatkal 8, Joginder Sharma c Dravid b Bhatkal 15, S. Rana c Verma b Vinay Kumar 81, Dhruv Singh c Dravid b Mithun 33, A. Sonkar c Dravid b Bhatkal 14, Y. Chahal (run out) 5, S. Badhwar (not out) 3, Extras (b-3, lb-6, nb-2, w-6) 17; Total (in 48.1 overs): 224.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-18, 3-31, 4-63, 5-63, 6-89, 7-190, 8-211, 9-218.
Karnataka bowling: Vinay Kumar 10-1-45-4, Mithun 8-0-43-1, Akshay 9-0-44-1, Bhatkal 8.1-5-21-3, Appanna 9-0-41-0, Verma 4-0-21-0.
Karnataka: G. Satish St. Saini b Sonkar 70, R. Uthappa b Badhwar 0, M. Pandey c Rana b Badhwar 30, R. Dravid c Badhwar b Sahu 77, A. Verma (not out) 38, C.M. Gautam (not out) 7, Extras (lb-2, w-1): 3; Total (for four wkts. in 37.5 overs): 225.
Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-43, 3-162, 4-207.
Haryana bowling: Joginder Sharma 6-0-26-0, Badhwar 7-0-57-2, Dhruv Singh 1-0-15-0, Chahal 4-0-30-0, Sonkar 8-0-45-1, Rana 7-0-30-0, Sahu 4.5-0-20-1.
