K. Gowtham makes an appeal
Karnataka set up a quarter-final date with Group C runners-up Mumbai after offspinner K Gowtham‘s 7 for 72 helped them beat Railways by 209 runs, giving the Group A table-toppers their fourth group-stage win at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi. Karnataka will now face Group C runners-up Mumbai in the quarter-final.
Gowtham ran through the Railways batting on the final day, dismissing all seven batsmen either bowled or lbw, to finish with a career-best match-haul of 10 for 142. Railways’ target of 377 was courtesy Mayank Agarwal‘s second ton of the match – 134 to follow 173 – as the visitors declared on 275 for 4.
Gowtham broke Railways’ resistance in the 14th over with the dismissal of opener Shivakant Shukla and took regular wickets to stop them from building any solid partnerships. By the time Railways went past 100, they had already lost five wickets, and together with legspinner Shreyas Gopal, Gowtham cleaned up the tail. The hosts’ resistance lasted 63 overs.
Agarwal – who has already flown past 1000 runs for the season – started the day on 104, with Karnataka at 208 for 1. He fell to Vinit Dhulap in the in the day’s ninth over, and Karnataka declared with a lead of 376 five overs later.
Group A runners-up Delhi drew their match against hosts Hyderabad after being made to bowl over 150 overs in the second innings. Forced to follow on after conceding a lead of 210, Hyderabad’s batsmen came good in the second innings, with Akshath Reddy (107), Rohit Rayudu (103) and B Sandeep (93) taking them to 442 for 8 at stumps.
Delhi used nine bowlers through the innings, with the only notable success being left-arm spinner Vikas Mishra’s fifth five-wicket haul. He took four wickets on the final day, including those of the set batsmen Rayudu and Sandeep. Hyderabad finished fourth in Group A with 16 points, after having their first two matches washed out. Delhi finished second with 27 points and will face Group C winners Madhya Pradesh in the quarterfinals.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo