Honours even despite Uthappa ton
Robin Uthappa ensured the first two sessions went his Karnataka's way, but a late fightback from the Andhra bowlers helped them claim a share of the opening day honours
The Bulletin by Siddarth Ravindran in Mysore
16-Nov-2008
Karnataka 277 for 7 (Uthappa 133) v Andhra
Scorecard
Scorecard
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Rahul Dravid walked in to the roars of a nearly packed stadium - and his untimely exit left the crowds stunned - but it was Robin Uthappa, the Karnataka captain, who took the applause with his second century of the season at the Gangothri Glades Cricket Ground in Mysore. Uthappa ensured the first two sessions went his team's way, but a late fightback from the Andhra bowlers helped them claim a share of the opening day honours.
Uthappa chose to bat and though he and KB Pawan were confronted with a pitch
that had a tinge of green, they had little trouble negotiating the new
ball. Pawan set the early pace before Uthappa got into his groove.
Uthappa was beaten several times early on. There were a few outside edges,
and a reprieve when on 24 - Hemal Watekar grassing a chance at cover - but
he kept going for his shots.
After the first hour, he was walking down the track even to the quick
bowlers, a sign of his growing confidence. A couple of paddle-sweeps off
the legspinner M Suresh sent a further warning to the bowlers; after the
first one was just cut off by the fine-leg fielder, Uthappa placed the
next one a little more finer to get a boundary. There were some impeccably
timed off-drives against the medium-pacers while his intelligent use of
the horizontal bat shots blunted Suresh's bowling. He put Karnataka right
on top; at lunch they were at 105 for 0.
A couple of quick wickets brought together the marquee names of
Karnataka's batting, and the pair set about reinstating the hosts'
advantage. Dravid was circumspect to start with, content to leave alone as
many deliveries as he could. He accepted an overpitched gift on leg stump
from P Vijaykumar to get going and employed the whip to square leg and the
cut shot to keep the score ticking.
It was Uthappa, though, who did the bulk of the scoring. More eye-catching
off-drives flowed but it was a gentle push down the ground for three that
was the stand-out stroke as Karnataka moved to 170 for 2. The crowd
started to chant "Uthappa, Uthappa, sixer bekappa" (Uthappa,
Uthappa, we want sixer), and he duly obliged, slamming part-timer Watekar
over the midwicket boundary. The next ball was also hammered in the same
direction, but landed just within the boundary.
Andhra's troubles were characterised by a piece of fielding soon after: a
thick outside edge from Uthappa flew towards third man, the fielder
belatedly decided to charge in to attempt a catch, he didn't make it in
time and it bounced past him for a four.
With tea around the around the corner, Karnataka were at 197 for 2, and
their best batsmen had got their eye in. That's when things started to
unravel. Uthappa fell trying a cute dab which was taken by
Watekar at slip, C Raghu was run out by a direct hit from AG Pradeep at
cover soon after tea, and Manish Pandey chipped a catch to LNP Reddy
at mid-off. The score was now 216 for 5, and the Andhra team perked up,
jogging quickly to their fielding positions at the end of every over.
Much depended on Dravid, who was not flustered either by the Andhra
bowling or the fall of wickets. However, only seven runs had been added
after Pandey's dismissal, when Dravid inexplicably shouldered arms to a
delivery from D Kalyankrishna which crashed into his off stump. It was
Andhra who were now in control, though some hitting from Vinay Kumar
(27*) and Sunil Joshi (18*) pushed the hosts to 277.
Siddarth Ravindran is a sub-editor at Cricinfo