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Pandey, Uthappa take Karnataka ahead
A composed knock from Manish Pandey, under pressure, after early fireworks from Robin Uthappa, helped Karnataka reach 265 for six and get within sniffing distance of a first-innings lead against Punjab at Gangothri Glades Cricket ground in Mysore, reports Ashutosh Sharma.
A composed knock from Manish Pandey, under pressure, after early fireworks from Robin Uthappa, helped Karnataka reach 265 for six and get within sniffing distance of a first-innings lead against Punjab at Gangothri Glades Cricket ground in Mysore.
Karnataka, who now trail by just 36, were in trouble when they lost Uthappa and Rahul Dravid in the space of few overs, while they were still 130 behind. Pandey batted beautifully for 76 to not only see through the day, but also help his team reach close to Punjab’s first-innings total.
Play was called off eight overs early due to bad light.
Punjab started their defence with a mixture of poor catching and wayward bowling. None of the bowlers could stick to a line and length. Pankaj Dharmani dropped KB Pawan on zero but the latter could not make most of the life and was castled by Harmeet Bansal for one.
Thereafter, Uthappa and Ganesh Satish took full toll against the wayward Love Ablish and Bansal as Karnataka raced to 50 in the 13th over.
Satish was then dropped by Ravi Inder at second slip as the hosts cruised along without any difficulty.
Ablish scalped Satish, who edged to Uday Kaul, for 29 with the first ball of his second spell. Uthappa kept batting aggressively, taking on Harmeet and spinner Rahul Sharma. He raised his 50 from 80 balls with the help of eight fours. Uthappa pulled Sharma for a four and a six and then drove the lanky spinner for another four in one over.
But Sharma had the last laugh when he caught Uthappa off his own bowling for 91 runs studded with 14 boundaries and one six.
Till then, Karnataka were cruising along at 146 for three but 24 runs later Ablish claimed the biggest scalp of the day when he had Rahul Dravid playing on. The Karnataka skipper only managed an inside edge onto his stumps and had made 36.
Punjab got rid of Amit Verma (1) cheaply and Taruwar Kohli picked up his maiden first-class wicket when he had CM Gautam caught behind for 11. Karnataka were reduced to 217 for six. At the end of day’s play, Pandey and Sunil Joshi were batting on 76 and 15, respectively. Earlier, Punjab could add just eight runs to their overnight total. Bhalla remained unbeaten on 70.
