Karnataka built their advantage steadily but Saurashtra ensured they weren’t allowed to run away with the match, with the second semi-final of the Ranji Trophy 2018-19 continuing to be delicately poised.
At lunch on the third day, Karnataka had Mayank Agarwal and captain Manish Pandey in the middle, and had stretched their lead to 119 runs with the score 80 for 3.
Agarwal had a nervy start but had progressed to 32, while Pandey was coming in on the back of good form in his last two innings and was batting on 17. How far this partnership goes could determine the direction the game takes eventually.
While there were well-timed shots from both men, the Saurashtra bowlers continued to ask questions, and with the cracks in the pitch widening, as is expected the longer the match goes, batsmen will continue to need watchfulness.
Saurashtra will rue dropping Agarwal in eighth over, when he was on just 11. Chetan Sakariya had troubled Agarwal in the first innings, and continued to bowl a searching line in the second. He was unlucky that a very close lbw shout went against him – he had suffered the same in the first innings too – but he put that behind him to draw an edge that flew to Arpit Vasavada at first slip at knee height. The ball popped in and out.
Jaydev Unadkat had given his team the first breakthrough, castling an out-of-form R Samarth in the third over. The next two wickets came off Prerak Mankad’s medium-pace cutters. KV Siddharth was bowled through the gate by one that jagged back in sharply, and Karun Nair played down the wrong line to be struck on the pads in front of the stumps.
After that though, Agarwal and Pandey allowed Karnataka to breathe easier and have so far put on 28 runs together.
In the morning, Abhimanyu Mithun and Ronit More took just 4.3 overs to wrap up Saurashtra’s innings, bowling them out for 236 to give Karnataka a 39-run lead. Mithun struck twice in his first over, sending back Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and Unadkat off consecutive balls. Left with only last-man Sakariya, Vasavada tried to farm the strike, but holed out off More.
More ended with career-best figures of 6 for 60, while Mithun had 3 for 46.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo