It was a match for Karnataka to lose and lose they did with some spineless batting in the face of a none-too-hostile Odisha attack to crash to a 65-run defeat in their group B Ranji Trophy league match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday.
Odisha bagged six points from this game to top the group with 13 points from four games having won two, drawn and lost one each. Karnataka came away with nothing and stay put in the the 7th slot on the 9-team table with five points from three draws and a defeat from four games.
All it took was the gentle medium pace of the quartet of Alok Kumar Sahoo (3 for 27), Basant Mohanty (2 for 31), Deepak Behera (2 for 38) and part-time seamer Biplab Samantray (2 for 28) as they picked up wickets at regular intervals to pile up pressure on the hosts who succumbed to it eventually.
Set to get a modest target of 245, they had knocked off 43 on the third evening. Needing another 202 for victory with nine wickets in hand, Karnataka courted defeat with a disastrous batting show. The overnight not outs Ganesh Satish and Robin Uthappa were the first to perish and that started their downfall.