Mumbai: Krishnappa Gowtham destroyed Assam’s second innings with a brilliant stint of off-spin bowling as Karnataka romped home to a comprehensive 10-wicket victory on the fourth of their Ranji Trophy Group B game on Sunday.
Gowtham grabbed 7-108 while leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal captured the other three for 97 as the spin duo bundled out Assam for 264 in their second innings at the Bandra Kurla Complex ground.
Karnataka, who led Assam by 245 runs in the first innings, needed 20 runs for an outright victory and accumulated the required runs for no loss in just three overs to secure a thumping victory with a bonus point to boot.
The seven points that Karnataka gathered here helped them leapfrog Jharkhand to the top of the league table with 17 points. Assam had their backs to the wall when they commenced in the morning at 48/1 and so it proved.
Barring first innings centurion Amit Verma, himself a former player from Karnataka, who made an aggressive 74, and opener Rahul Hazarika (44), the others put up meek resistance against Gowtham and Shreyas.
The 28-year-old Gowtham claimed six of the top seven batsmen to finish with his career’s, as well as the season’s, second five wicket haul. He has 18 wickets in three games this season.
Scoreboard
Assam I innings: 325
Karnataka I innings: 570/9 decl
Assam (II innings) (O/N: 48/1): R Das b Gopal 16, R Hazarika c & b Gowtham 44, G Sharma st Gautam b Gowtham 18, Amit Verma c Aravind b Gowtham 74, K Arun Karthik c Agarwal b Gowtham 14, Tarjinder Singh c sub b Gowtham 26, J Syed Mohammad lbw b Gowtham 0, S Purkayastha c Samarth b Gopal 33, A Ahmed st Gautam b Gopal 23, A Das c sub b Gowtham 1, K Das (not out) 14. Extras (b 1) 1. Total (all out; 85 overs) 264
FoW: 1-36, 2-71, 3-82, 4-108, 5-159, 6-171, 7-208, 8-236, 9-238, 10-264
Bowling: S Aravind 18-8-34-0, K Gowtham 34-8-108-7, S Gopal 23-4-97-3, R Samarth 1-0-5-0, S Binny 6-1-14-0, K Nair 3-2-5-0
Karnataka (II innings): R Samarth (not out) 4, M Agarwal (not out) 17. Extras 0. Total (0 wickets; 3 overs; 10 mins) 21
Bowling: A Das 1-0-4-0, Amit Verma 1-0-5-0, S Purkayastha 1-0-12-0
