One hundred and 97 balls. Two hours and 39 minutes. That’s how long Uttarakhand could hold off Karnataka.
And because the despondent opponents couldn’t hold on for much longer, Mayank Agarwal’s men romped to innings and 281-run victory on the fourth day of their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal clash at the M Chinnaswamy stadium.
With this win, Karnataka qualified for the semifinals where they will take on the winners of the quarterfinal tie between Saurashtra and Punjab. As the new rules have it, Karnataka, by virtue of finishing on top of their group with 35 points during the league phase, will host the last-four tie at home from February 8.
Agarwal announced in the wake of his team’s latest win that they weren’t too concerned about who they get to play in the semis, but he couldn’t stop waxing lyrical about the way they went about this game.
Fair enough. They did bowl Uttarakhand out for 116 on the back of debutant M Venkatesh’s fifer. They did put up 606 runs with Shreyas Gopal’s unbeaten 161 showing them the way. And, they did bowl Uttarakhand out for 209 after the visitors entered the fourth day with seven wickets in hand and 106 runs already on board.
If numbers and attitude are accounted for, Karnataka have not played a more clinical game this season.
All their failings were put to rest convincingly, and though Uttarakhand can barely be considered a challenge for a side this qualified, this performance augurs well for what comes next.
Given that they were bounced out of the quarterfinals twice and semifinals three times in the last five active seasons, this is Karnataka’s chance at redemption.
“We are not thinking about the past,” said Agarwal. “We have our plans and place and we have our own goals. We don’t worry about opponents or which stage of the tournament we are in. If we stick to what we have planned, and if everyone plays their role, we will win.”
While Agarwal was describing their mantra going ahead, he could have just as well described Friday’s phase of play with the same quote.
Once Venkatesh got Dikshanshu Negi out with a short of a length ball which reared awkwardly, Vyshak Vijaykumar got into the act with a spell which reflected his success this season.
Vijaykumar, who is the leading wicket-taker for Karnataka this season with 31 scalps, kept it in the corridor consistently, and when he did go for the bouncer, he was impeccable in accuracy.
With the pacer picking up successive wickets, it became obvious that Karnataka could wrap the game up by lunch.
Also, it was important for Shreyas to pick up the three wickets despite the fact that they were all tail-enders. More so because the leg-spinner was able to, finally, land the ball on good spots consistently. He was also able to control his flight better.
Having found some rhythm, he got Deepak Dhapola leaning forward with a small gap between bad and pad. Shreyas’ googly snuck through, and the last bat - for whom the session was extended by nine minutes - had his stumps dislodged.