Samarth, Nair tons see off draw against Vidarbha

J Suchith had made it clear at the end of the third day that Karnataka were not going to push for an outright win on Sunday. "We are looking to bat and bat and bat," he said. R Samarth and Karun Nair lived up to the talk, and helped themselves to their fourth and seventh first-class hundreds respectively, as Karnataka declared their second innings on 331 for 3.

During the course of collecting their milestones, they also put on an unbroken stand of 176. Once Nair got to his hundred, captain Vinay Kumar called them in and the tea interval was advanced by four minutes.

Set an improbable target of 372 in a minimum of 22 overs, Vidarbha batted for another half an hour before both the captains agreed to settle for a draw at the start of the mandatory overs, with no prospect of an outright win for either team.

In the morning, Vidarbha must have had a tiny ray of hope after seamer Swapnil Bandiwar's full-length delivery knocked KL Rahul's off stump out of its groove in the third ball of the day. It turned out to be a false dawn, as the visitors managed only one more wicket, of Manish Pandey, all day. Samarth and Nair then went about gathering runs patiently even as Vidarbha's shoulders drooped.

Later, Wagh was fined 60% of his match fee by the match referee for his outburst against the umpires on Saturday. Wagh had slammed the umpiring, accusing them of favoring the home side. Wagh had also questioned the integrity of Karnataka wicketkeeper CM Gautam, accusing him off claiming bump balls. Vidarbha captain S Badrinath refused to comment on Wagh's accusations against the umpires and Gautam, but said his team "was on the unlucky side."

Rajasthan 198 (Vineet Saxena 66*, Pragyan Ojha 4-49) and 146 for 5 (Ashok Menaria 69*, Dinda 2-21) drew with Bengal 282 (Manoj Tiwary 83, Easwaran 53, Ajay Singh 3-72)
Scorecard

Bengal walked away with first-innings honours from a clash against Rajasthan that was severely interrupted by rain in Kolkata. Manoj Tiwary, who rescued Bengal with a century against defending champions Karnataka in their season opener, top-scored with 83, while Abhimanyu Easwaran and Pankaj Shaw contributed 53 and 52 respectively.

Behind by 84, Rajasthan were struggling at 15 for 3, with Ashok Dinda, the pace spearhead, accounting for the openers. But Ashok Menaria absorbed the pressure and faced 174 balls for his unbeaten 69 to take Rajasthan to 146 for 5 in 57 overs before the umpires called for stumps. The result left both teams in the bottom half of the group, with Bengal having a game in hand after playing just two matches as compared to Rajasthan's three.

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