Robust reply from Karnataka but prodigious task ahead

The third day of the Ranji Trophy semifinal between Hyderabad and Karnataka at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Thursday began with an air of expectancy hanging around as VVS Laxman resumed his innings at 346. Karnataka went in straightaway for the third new ball after 180 overs and Laxman got to his 350 in the second over of the day with his 52nd boundary. Ganesh was bowling to him with four men patrolling the fence but the wide arc between deep backward square and mid on was open country. Laxman just eased one off his legs through mid wicket and the ball trickled to the boundary before the two converging fielders could reach it. Fiaz Ahmed was gaining in confidence at the other end, swatting a short one from Ganesh to the mid wicket fence.

But Laxman's long hand ended at 683 when he mistimed a pull off Prasad to deposit it tamely into the hands of substitute KN Ramesh at mid on. His 353 (559 balls, 758 minutes) included a startling 220 runs in fours and sixes. Hyderabad decided to rub salt in the open gushing wound by prolonging their innings further and both Fiaz and NP Singh picked up more boundaries. Prasad got his fifth wicket of the innings when he had Fiaz caught behind by Thilak Naidu for 31 upon which Azharuddin finally decided to close shop just under an hour into the morning session with the scoreboard reading 711/8.

Hyderabad's new ball duo of NP Singh and Fiaz Ahmed started with a flurry of no balls. A loud shout for a catch at forward short leg against Arun Kumar was turned down as he played forward with bat and pad close together. Mithun Beerala wasted little time in gaining the ascendancy as he punched Fiaz to the cover boundary off the back foot. Beerala had a lucky break when Daniel Manohar at forward short leg instinctively got his hands to a flick off NP Singh but wasn't able to hold on. Azhar brought on Venkatapathy Raju from the BEML end in the eighth over and both batsmen treated him with circumspection. The seam bowlers continued to be plagued by overstepping and with Beerala playing some elegant drives through the off side, Karnataka had galloped to 84/0 in 17 overs at lunch.

Arun Kumar cover drove Satwalkar to the fence to bring up the hundred of the innings and complete 3000 runs in his 45th Ranji match. Beerala has been very much the form player for Karnataka in this, his debut season and he beat Arun Kumar to his half century by picking the gap between mid on and short midwicket to precision. He also favoured the cut shot wide of point. Kanwaljit Singh was introduced belatedly into the attack and in his fifth over he got the break as Beerala flicked one straight into the hands of Azhar at short midwicket for 74.

Arun Kumar followed him back to the pavilion at 190, caught at the wicket off Kanwaljit for 71 although he seemed visibly disappointed. Rowland Barrington (52) and Vijay Bharadwaj (38) steadied the boat with an unbroken 79 run third wicket partnership. Azharuddin came on to bowl his off breaks with seven overs to stumps and a chest high full toss was stroked to the cover boundary by Barrington who duly completed his fifty. Bharadwaj had a stroke of fortune when he played forward to Raju but was unable to smother the spin and the ball flew to Nandakishore at silly point who put it down. But he regained his composure with two boundaries to long on and long off in the same over.

In any other circumstances, Karnataka's final score of 269/2 would have been redoubtable but in the context of the match it was a mere dribble in the canvas. Karnataka will be soothened by the memory of a Ranji Trophy match some eighteen summers ago when they conceded a first innings lead after making 700 plus but it doesn't happen too often to inspire confidence. The conditions here are still perfect for batting though. The bounce is good, the ball is coming onto the bat well, the wicket is still holding up and is taking turn only in patches but not consistently enough to trouble the batsmen.