Bengaluru: Having garnered a big lead, Karnataka had Odisha pinned to the mat before Biplab Samantray and the visitors' thorn-inthe-flesh Abhilash Mallick thwarted their progress on Day 3 of the Group ' A' Ranji Trophy encounter at the DRIEMS ground at Tangi, near Cuttack on Saturday .
Though the middle and lower order failed to get going as Karnataka, resuming at 288 for four were bowled out for 379 for a 153-run lead, the visitors' were served brilliantly by H.S. Sharath (341) as they reduced the hosts to 74 for four by the 33rd over.
But Samantray, who is known for his dogged efforts, and Mallick, who blunted the Karnataka attack in the first innings, came together in an unconquered 95-run fifth wicket partnership to take the match into the fourth day .
At close, Odisha had recovered to 169 for four, a slender lead of 16 runs with six wickets in hand with Samantray on 50 and Mallick on a 78-ball 47.
Karnataka bowlers, with their tails up and having scented victory will look to use the favourable conditions in the morning when the ball has done the maximum damage.
As has been the case, the third morning also saw a flurry of wickets as Karnataka went into a tailspin.
Overnight centurion Manish Pandey and C.M.Gautam didn’t last long with the former adding 24 to his 108 while the Karnataka skipper managed just five to his overnight 11.
Abhimanyu Mithun, coming in down the order at No.8, having had a great time with the ball swung his bat with gay abandon in a quickfire 43 off just 48 deliveries with six boundaries and a six as he added 57 runs with the last three wickets, the chunk of it coming from his bat before the visitors were finally bowled out.
The confident Mithun then returned to dismiss Girjia Rout in the first over to rock the hosts before Sharath grabbed centre stage but Karnataka, unwittingly allowed Samantray and Mallick to wriggle out of the situation when a finish loomed large.
Having said that, Karnataka hold all the aces and their bowlers will need to replicate their first day feat and pull off what could be their first win of the season.
Odisha first innings: : 2 22 26 6 K Ka ar rn na at ta ak ka a ( (1 1s st t i in nn ni in ng gs s, , 0 0/ /n n 2 28 88 8/ /4 4) ): : Manish Pandey b Pradhan 132, C.M.Gautam lbw Pradhan 16, Ganesh Satish b Pradhan 0, Abrar Kazi lbw D Behera 17, Abhimanyu Mithun c Pradhan b A Sahoo 43, Sreenath Aravind lbw Mohanty 1, H.S.Sharath (not out) 0.
Extras ( (b b9 9, , l lb b2 2, , n nb b6 6, , p pe en n5 5) ) 2 22 2 T To ot ta al l ( (a al ll l o ou ut t; ; 1 11 17 7. .3 3 o ov ve er rs s) ) 3 37 79 9 F Fo oW W: : 4-257, 5-3-5, 6-305, 7-322, 8354, 9-379 B Bo ow wl li in ng g: : Basant Mohanty 34-7-1052, Suryakant Pradhan 16-3-66-3, Deepak Behera 30-5-79-2, Alok Sahoo 11.3-2-37-1, Biplab Samantray 12-1-47-1, Niranjan Behera 14-3-29-0 O Od di is sh ha a ( (2 2n nd d i in nn ni in ng gs s) ): : Girjia Rout c Pandey b Mithun 4, Bikas Pati b Sharath 11, Niranjan Behera c Gautam b Sharath 15, Govind Podder c Rahul b Sharath 34, Biplab Samantray (batting) 50, Abhilash Mallick (batting) 47.
Extras ( (b b6 6, , l lb b2 2) ) 8 8 T To ot ta al l ( (f fo or r 4 4 w wi ic ck ke et ts s; ; 6 60 0 o ov ve er rs s) ) 1 16 69 9 F Fo oW W: : 1-4, 2-29, 3-36, 4-74 B Bo ow wl li in ng g: : Abhimanyu Mithun 13-438-1, HS Sharath 17-6-41-3, S Aravind 12-7-20-0, M Pandey 4-0-140, A Kazi 12-1-42-0, KL Rahul 1-0-10, Mayank Agarwal 1-0-5-0.
