BENGALURU: Karnataka beat Uttar Pradesh in their last round-robin match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Alur on Monday by five wickets, but their quarterfinal hopes are hanging by a thread. With just one team attaining direct entry from the six groups to the quarterfinals, Punjab have secured that spot from Elite Group A with an unbeaten record.
Karun Nair and his men, who finished second with 16 points, are hoping to finish as one of the two best second-placed teams across the five elite groups. For that to happen, they need other results to go their way. So, it is a waiting game for Karnataka.
Though the format is tough, Karnataka have not been impressive. In the absence of Manish Pandey, KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal, their batting has let them down. Barring Devdutt Padikkal, who scored 207 runs in the competition, none of the players have shown consistency. Skipper Karun Nair has also failed to shoulder responsibility.
On Monday, Karnataka knew fully well that they had to win the match by a big margin in a bid to improve their net run rate, but things did not go according to plan initially after they opted to bowl.
Openers Karan Sharma and Abhishek Goswami batted well against the Karnataka bowlers, who could not break the opening stand. Spinner J Suchith, who took three wickets, finally scalped the wicket of Goswami in the ninth over.
Uttar Pradesh lost wickets at regular intervals after that. With Suresh Raina and Sharma back in the hut quickly, they collapsed from 93/3 in the 12th over to 132/8 in 20 overs. Besides the two openers, none of the batsmen reached double figures. Pravin Dubey , like Suchith, ended up with three wickets.
With Karnataka needing an early win, Padikkal played his shots and looked good. The southpaw hit a 19-ball 34, but lost his wicket in the fifth over. And when Karnataka were reduced to 72/4, one wondered if they would suffer their second defeat .
However, Gopal rose to the occasion with an unbeaten 47 from 28 balls, which comprised five fours and six. His innings helped them reach the target in the 20th over.
Uttar Pradesh: 132/8 in 20 ovs [Abhishek Goswami 47, Karan Sharma 41, Suchith J 3/21, Pravin Dubey 3/15] lost to Karnataka: 136 for 5 in 19.3 overs [Devdutt Padikkal 34, Shreyas Gopal 47 n.o] by 5 wickets.