For a large part of Monday Railways, hosting its penultimate game of the season, struggled to get going, the mood in the dressing room and the performance on field mirroring the dark, overcast conditions.
The host was reduced to 98/6 in 49 overs when play was called off on the opening day due to bad light, a condition that had, accompanied by a slight drizzle and mist, wiped out the entire morning session. Karnataka won the toss and elected to field.
Captain Arindam Ghosh was unbeaten on 32 and Avinash Yadav on 29, adding 53 for the sixth wicket for a desperate fightback against the Karnataka seamers who had to simply stick to the basics to reap the reward.
Railways officials admitted their batsmen stayed back when they should have played forward to counter the low bounce. The surface at Karnail Singh Stadium has, traditionally, been a batsman’s delight. And regardless of the pitch having been relaid or the heavy conditions, it stayed true to form with little assistance for the bowlers.
Abhimanyu Mithun began the charge when Ashish Sehrawat top-edged a short, wide delivery to the wicketkeeper in the third over. Mrunal Devdhar and Saurabh Singh hung around, fending off the bowlers but unable to add much to the total.
Mahesh Rawat, playing his first game and Dinesh Mor, the youngster who has replaced him behind the stumps, were both beaten by the low bounce from left-arm seamer Prateek Jain before Avinash joined his skipper for grinding out the remaining 24.5 overs for the day.
“Honestly, this is not a pitch for fast bowling but I managed to land in the right areas and the ball was moving a bit initially. But there is not much support and it will only assist the batsmen in the coming days. The ball will keep low and it will be important to bowl a tight line here,” Prateek, who picked up four wickets, admitted.
With conditions unlikely to get better over the coming days, Karnataka would be desperate to get bat as soon as possible on day two seeking a result.
The scores:
Railways — 1st innings: Mrunal Devdhar lbw b Prateek 12, Ashish Sehrawat c Sharath b Mithun 0, Saurabh Singh b Prateek 7, Arindam Ghosh (batting) 32, Mahesh Rawat b Prateek 0, Dinesh Mor b Prateek 4, Harsh Tyagi c Sharath b Mithun 9, Avinash Yadav (batting) 29, Extras (b-1, lb-2, nb-2): 5; Total (for six wkts. in 49 overs): 98.
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-20, 3-23, 4-23, 5-29, 6-45.
Karnataka bowling: Abhimanyu Mithun 8-4-18-2, Prateek Jain 13-7-14-4, Ronit More 6-2-10-0, K. Gowtham 14-5-28-0, Shreyas Gopal 8-0-25-0.
