The second round of matches in the ongoing Ranji Trophy are set to conclude today (January 15). While quite a few matches ended within two to three days, while other matches are headed towards draw. But Karnataka and Gujarat played out a thrilling encounter at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The Mayank Agarwal-led side floundered massively in the chase of 110 runs to lose the match by six runs after dominating for three days.
Perhaps, Karnataka were sitting pretty at 50/0 as Devdutt Padikkal and Agarwal started confidently in the chase. But once the opening stand was broken, all hell broke loose with left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai wrecking havoc picking up seven wickets. Only Shubhang Hedge, batting at number four, showed some resistance scoring 27 runs but three batters including Manish Pandey bagged ducks as Karnataka collapsed to get bowled out for 103 runs in 26.2 overs.
The amazing turn around has given Gujarat an outright victory which looked unlikely until the fourth morning. As far as the match is concerned, Gujarat managed to post 264 runs in their first innings after being 45/4 at one stage. Karnataka then rode on century from their skipper Mayank (109) and half-centuries from Pandey (88) and Padikkal (60) to amass 374 runs and take a lead of 110 runs.
Gujarat yet again managed to recover from 52/4 in their second innings and mustered 219 runs. Perhaps, they were also struggling at 145/7 at one stage but the lower-order batters somehow managed to push the lead beyond 100 runs. Even then, Karnataka were the favourites to gun down the target. However, little did they know that a Desai named bowler would blow them away with his spin bowling in just a matter of couple of hours.
Brief Scores
Gujarat - 264 & 219 beat Karnataka 374 & 103 by six runs
Top scorers - Mayank Agarwal - 109; Manish Pandey - 88
Top wicket-takers - Siddharth Desai - 7/42 (total nine wickets in the match)
