Karnataka to formally exit Ranji Trophy tomorrow

A light shower in the final session forced stumps to be called almost twelve overs early and prevented Hyderabad from mopping up the Karnataka tail this evening. Tomorrow the Ranji Trophy holders will be formally administered the push from this year's edition, a result that was arguably on the cards by the end of the first day itself. Karnataka's last pair averted the follow on but there will be little relief in the home camp, trailing as they are by 188 runs at 523/9.

Not even a washout of the last day's play can save Karnataka. The playing conditions affirm that in case of a no result on first innings, a comparison of run rates will decide the winner. Karnataka has an inferior run rate, a natural corollary to having an inferior batting, bowling and fielding.

Karnataka started the fourth day trailing by 442 and with the second new ball due in five overs. Raju and Kanwaljit bowled three overs each before the new ball was handed to Fiaz Ahmed who had been disappointing yesterday, with 40 runs being taken off his six overs. Bharadwaj became the fourth successive batsman to get to his fifty and neither he nor Barrington seemed to be in undue discomfort as the seamers tried to find their rhythm.

The first boundary off the bat came in the 13th over of the day when Barrington got Fiaz away between second slip and gully to third man, bringing up the 300 in the process. But when Barrington tried to streak one through the slips in the same over, he saw Mohd. Azharuddin's left hand come in the way at the last possible moment and catch the ball inches off the ground at second slip. In that one moment the difference between the two sides was there to see in unmistakable terms.

Barrington's stout resistance at the wicket had netted him 65 runs and although Bharadwaj played a glorious cover drive off NP Singh, Fiaz was not done yet as he had Thilak Naidu caught down the leg side by Riaz Sheikh in his next over. Naidu tried to help the ball to backward square leg but the bounce defeated him and suddenly two wickets had gone down for nine runs against the run of play to leave Karnataka at 311/4.

Vijay flirted with danger when he followed one outside off stump from Fiaz and although the fielders appeared convinced that he'd got a nick, umpire Jamula showed no interest. Satwalkar had replaced NP Singh at the pavilion end and Bharadwaj played a classy extra cover drive, putting his front foot down and hitting on the rise to send it crashing into the advertising boards. Fiaz went off after a nippy spell of 8-1-29-2 and Raju got some turn and bounce outside off stump rightaway.

One such delivery flicked Vijay's bat on its way to the keeper and Karnataka's middle order was collapsing like a house of cards. After lunch another flicker of resistance came to an end when Bharadwaj stepped out to drive Raju on the leg side and ended up presenting the bowler with a simple c&b for 90. Sunil Joshi walked out with a runner in Mithun Beerala after having hurt his foot at a practice session this morning. He showed his hand early when he went for a almighty heave across the line and connected thin air. Joshi is nothing if not an entertainer and soon enough he was connecting leather with the meat of the bat, savaging Raju with the biggest hit of the match, the ball landing in the uninhabited stands at deep midwicket.

The bowlers gave him a wide berth after that with three and even four fielders on the boundary line. Raju did bowl a beauty that turned and went through Joshi's gate, only to pass over the stumps. Hyderabad saw the back of Akhil when he turned a ball pitched up on leg from Raju into the hands of forward short leg. Ganesh and Joshi now came together in the most entertaining association of the innings. Joshi pulled Raju on bended knee over the fence at deep backward square and his fifty came with another six over the straight boundary. Ganesh joined the party with an authentic late cut to the square third man fence off Kanwaljit Singh that would have made any top order batsman proud and the runs began to flow fast and thick now.

The 70 run stand (66 minutes, 100 balls) was finally broken when Fiaz Ahmed trapped Joshi leg before for 72 as he played back. Although Riaz Sheikh than dropped a straightforward chance offered by Prasad, Kanwaljit had him spoon a catch to midwicket soon to leave Karnataka at 508/9 with four runs still needed to avoid the follow on. Ganesh hit three boundaries in one over off Fiaz to spare Karnataka's blushes although Hyderabad wouldn't have been too unhappy about that, having already spent a long time in the field. Ganesh brought up his fifty off just seventy balls but dark clouds were now hovering over the ground and sure enough the sun vanished under a cover and a light drizzle enveloped the ground as the umpires called off play at 3.56 p.m.