“We won’t give it back,” yelled a fan from the stands as Karnataka tightened its grip on the Irani Cup under the afternoon sun here at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday.
That sense of inevitability was emphatically vindicated when R. Vinay Kumar’s men retained the title with a 246-run victory over Rest of India on Friday. The comprehensive triumph was etched with a day to spare once Rest of India was bowled out for 156 in its second innings, while chasing 403. Earlier, Karnataka had posted 422 in its second essay.
The visitor was never in the picture once Abhimanyu Mithun scythed through the top-order with an unerring and hostile line near the off-stump and Rest of India skidded to eight for three in four overs.
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Unmukt Chand, Paras Dogra and Naman Ojha left in a daze and it seemed as if the host was in a tearing hurry to finish the match as Saturday happens to be Ugadi, the regional New Year day.
Mithun’s fiery spell left Rest of India uneasy with a lunch score of 32 for three.
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There was no comfort once the desserts were consumed as post-lunch, H.S. Sharath and S. Arvind dismissed Jiwanjot Singh and Manoj Tiwary. The last named chopped one onto his stumps and with the captain back in the pavilion, Rest of India gingerly sipped its tea at 108 for five.
The last session proved no better and with leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal bagging four wickets, Karnataka kept its date with another domestic title while Kedar Jadhav’s 56 went in vain.
In the morning, resuming at 341 for six, Karnataka added 81 runs in 17.3 overs while losing its remaining wickets.
Interestingly, century-maker Manish Pandey (123 n.o., 164b, 12x4, 3x6) contributed 50 of those runs with a scintillating knock that was high on bravado and big shots.
Taking apart AaronVarun Aaron lapsed into a bouncer-bout and man-of-the-match Pandey helped himself to shots all over the park. A scoring sequence of 6, 4, 6, 4, 2 in one Aaron over helped him hurtle to a second first-class hundred this season.
The lone consolation for Rest of India was seamer Shardul Thakur’s five-wicket haul that silenced the tail but by then Karnataka had sewed up the game.
The scores:
Karnataka — 1st innings: 244 in 77.1 overs.
Rest of India — 1st innings: 264 in 75.4 overs.
Karnataka — 2nd innings: R. Samarth b Thakur 81, Mayank Agarwal c Jadhav b Aaron 28, Abhishek Reddy lbw b Ojha 31, Robin Uthappa b Aaron 6, Karun Nair lbw b Ojha 80, Manish Pandey (not out) 123, Shreyas Gopal c Naman b Dhawan 0, Vinay Kumar c Naman b Thakur 38, Abhimanyu Mithun b Thakur 10, S. Arvind lbw b Thakur 4, H.S. Sharath c Dogra b Thakur 5; Extras (b-5, lb-4, w-7): 16; Total (in 110.3 overs): 422.
Fall of wickets: 1-54, 2-105, 3-121, 4-182, 5-288, 6-289, 7-354, 8-390, 9-408.
Rest of India bowling: Rishi Dhawan 21-1-74-1, Varun Aaron 27-4-131-2, Shardul Thakur 29.3-6-86-5, Pragyan Ojha 28-3-100-2, Jayant Yadav 4-0-16-0, Manoj Tiwary 1-0-6-0.
Rest of India –2nd innings: Jiwanjot Singh c Reddy b Sharath 38, Unmukt Chand c Uthappa b Mithun 1, Paras Dogra b Mithun 0, Naman Ojha c Uthappa b Mithun 0, Manoj Tiwary b Arvind 24, Kedar Jadhav c Reddy b Shreyas 56, Jayant Yadav lbw b Shreyas 10, Rishi Dhawan lbw b Shreyas 10, Shardul Thakur b Shreyas 5, Varun Aaron (not out) 10, Pragyan Ojha (run out) 0; Extras (b-2): 2; Total (in 43.3 overs): 156.
Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-2, 3-8, 4-63, 5-65, 6-113, 7-125, 8-133, 9-152.
Karnataka bowling: R. Vinay Kumar 12-2-34-0, Abhimanyu Mithun 10-2-40-3, H.S. Sharath 6-1-16-1, S. Arvind 9.3-3-25-1, Shreyas Gopal 6-0-39-4.
Man-of-the-match: Manish Pandey