Bangalore: All through the season, Karnataka has ridden on the performance of the youngsters in the squad and the New Year was keeping strictly in tune with their confidence as three young guns stood out with their sparkling show.
Karun Nair’s maiden hundred in just his third match helped Karnataka gain a crucial 87-run lead over Delhi before the young fast bowlers Ronit More and HS Sharath ripped through the hosts batting line-up in their second essay to all but seal the issue for the visitors. At close which again saw an early closure for the third straight day, Delhi were teetering at 132 for six, an overall lead of just 45 with four wickets in hand.
Nair, eight short of a century overnight, completed his maiden landmark before the first to go in the first session, trapped by Ashish Nehra after an impressive 105 (232b, 12x4, 1x6) as Karnataka, resuming at 226 for five were all out for 289 in 99.4 overs.
Delhi, with their hopes diminishing, having conceded the lead, were left with no option but to overhaul the deficit and set a target were rocked by Sharath, who has taken hugely impressive strides this season.
The 20-year-old strapping fast bowler, in red-hot form, struck two telling blows dismissing the experienced Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag in the space of two overs and when More sent back Manan Sharma, the hosts had slipped into a hole at 41 for 3.
Mithun Manhas and Rajat Bhatia tried to stem the rot with a 41-run fourth wicket partnership but the lad with the golden breakthrough arm, Shreyas Gopal accounted for Manhas to cut into their hopes.
With their backs to the wall, Bhatia then added 39 with Rahul Yadav before More’s double strike in two overs shrouded Delhi in a pall of gloom as did the weather which hastened the day’s proceedings to a quick end.
Karnataka, the runaway group toppers will look to sign off the league stage with a flourish before the quarterfinals beginning next week.
Scoreboard
Delhi (1st innings): 202
Karnataka (1st innings, o/n 226/5): Karun Nair lbw Nehra 105, Shreyas Gopal b Sood 28, C.M. Gautam lbw Narwal 15, R Vinay Kumar c (sub) Mohit b Chauhan 6, Ronit More (not out) 4, HS Sharath b Chauhan 0. Extras (b4, lb5) 9
Total (all out; 99.4 overs) 289
FoW: 5-200, 6-256, 7-279, 8-270, 9-289
Bowling: Sumit Narwal 20-5-42-1, Varun Sood 36-8-93-3, Rajat Bhatia 6-1-13-1, Ashish Nehra 20-6-39-3, Manan Sharma 9-1-46-0, Manoj Chauhan 8.4-0-47-2
Delhi (2nd innings): Gautam Gambhir lbw Sharath 26, Virender Sehwag lbw Sharath 11, Manan Sharma lbw More 2, Mithun Manhas c & b Gopal 32, Rajat Bhatia c Gautam b More 30, Rahul Yadav b More 17, Milind Kumar (batting) 8, Varun Sood (batting) 0. Extras (b1, lb4, nb1) 6
Total (for 6 wkts; 49 overs) 132
FoW: 1-38, 2-41, 3-41, 4-82, 5-121, 6-124
Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 11-2-41-0, HS Sharath 11-3-24-2, Ronit More 12-3-27-3, Stuart Binny 3-0-14-0, Shreyas Gopal 5-0-11-1, Abrar Kazi 6-1-9-0, R Samarth 1-0-1-0
AITA tourney from Saturday
AITA tourney from Saturday
The Karnataka Tennis Players Parents AssociÂaÂtion will conduct the KTÂPÂPA Dr. Sampath LoÂgÂaÂnÂadan AITA U-14 CÂhamÂpÂionship Series tennis to-uÂr-nament for boys and girls from January.4 at the TAMS Courts, Marat-hÂaÂhÂalli. For further details contact Rajini C.R mob: 988-631-1077.
Pawan to lead state team
Prajwal Pawan will lead the Karnataka side in the U-14 South Zone inter-zonal two-day game to be held in Goa from Jan. 6.
Team: Prajwal Pawan (captain), Nikhin Jose, Devdutt B P, Mithesh Madhan, Nirmit S, Akash NR Sharma, Luvnith Sisodia (WK), Siddarath S Mahadevan, Nirbhay Jnanendra, Advaith Jayaram, Shubhang Hegde, Vinay Murgesh, Shamanth S M, Munium Mossa Mehdi, Abhishek Shetty, Amarnath A C. Coach: Sudhindra Shinde, Nawaz. Physio: Sri Manjunath
Volleyball tourney from Jan. 18
Lions Club Honnavar, under the banner of the Volleyball Federation of India and Karnataka Volleyball Association, will conduct the 20th SenÂior South zone Volleyball Championship for Men and Women at Honnavar (Karwar) in Karnataka from January 18-22. Teams from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, kerala, Pondicherry and Karnataka are slated to participate.
