da brdice： Seventeen wickets fell on a dramatic third day in Mysore, but there was nochange in overall match situation, with Karnataka retaining a firm grip
da dobrowin： The Bulletin by Siddarth Ravindran in Mysore18-Nov-2008
Scorecard
Rahul Dravid’s polished 50 was the centrepiece of Karnataka’s secondinnings © AFP (file photo)
Seventeen wickets fell on a dramatic third day in Mysore, but there was nochange in the overall match situation, with Karnataka retaining a firm grip.Andhra fought back after falling 148 runs short in the first inningsthrough medium-pacer P Vijaykumar’s six-wicket haul. But their top order’sfailings, on a pitch with a hint of variable bounce, put Karnataka back incharge.Andhra mostly kept only two fielders on the leg side, and their bowlers’persistent outside-off line had most of the Karnataka batsmen feeling forthe ball. Vijaykumar reaped most of the benefits, five of his wicketscoming through catches to the keeper or slip. His other victim, RobinUthappa, squatted exaggeratedly after being bowled for 9 indicating thatthe ball kept lower than he had anticipated.Rahul Dravid’s polished 50 was the centrepiece of Karnataka’s secondinnings, but the youngsters in the line-up failed again. A big chunk ofDravid’s, and Karnataka’s, runs came in the region between third man and cover.He started cautiously, refusing to be tempted by the wide deliveriesoutside off stump, and it was only after getting his eye in that heemployed the cut. There were some soft-handed, controlled glides past slipand, some delicate leg glances when the bowling drifted onto his pads.The only blemish in another assured knock was an attempted upper-cut whichflew just above the hands of slip. He finally fell, nicking a widedelivery from D Kalyankrishna to the keeper; Karnataka slipped to 135 for6.Brief bursts of hitting followed from Thilak Naidu, Sunil Joshi and VinayKumar before the innings came to a close with NC Aiyappa giving astraightforward catch to Hemal Watekar at slip off Vijaykumar, who was soelated with his career-best performance that he tripped over ateam-mate’s foot as he set off on a celebratory run.Barring Dravid, the Karnataka batsmen frequently groped for theball outside off stump before finally getting an edge. G Satish’s inningstypifying their display: he edged past third slip, survived two massiveappeals for caught behind, and, in one period, was beatenin four of five deliveries, before finally being caught by wicketkeeper Manoj Sai.Andhra needed 320 off 120 overs to pull off a comeback victory, achallenging task but as good a position as they could have hoped for atthe start of the day. However their batsmen chose to follow the templateset by Karnataka’s batsmen. Loose away-from-the-body wafts led to threeAndhra wickets; those of their openers, Watekar and LNP Reddy, and theirfirst-innings top scorer Sai. Joshi chipped in with one more,trapping B Sumanth lbw on the back foot, and the visitors finished the day on 28for 4.Their tail-enders had responded better to the challenge of saving thefollow-on in the morning session. They were eight down after Joshi gotKalyankrishna in the fourth over of the day, but M Suresh and debutantSuresh Babu resisted. Suresh fell soon after bringing up his fifty, miscuing a pull to point. Andhra were nine down, and still needed 16 more runs.The inexperienced left-arm spinner KP Appanna was brought on at thatstage, a move which backfired as Babu slammed three fours in his firstover. A sweep for four in Appanna’s next over ensured Andhra avoided the follow-on. Karnataka were disappointed but their smiles were back by the end of the day.
