CHENNAI: An all-around show from Krishnappa Gowtham kept the game in balance on a day when the inexperienced Karnataka’s pace attack was made to toil by resilient Railways’ batters at the IC-Gurunanak College Ground on Friday.
Having put up 481 in the first innings, Karnataka weren’t worried much as they trusted their young pace attack which had two debutants — Vidyadhar Patil and V Vyshak — to come good. However, Mrunal Devdhar and Vivek Singh took them on, scoring freely without taking any risks as they were offered half volleys and short-pitched deliveries. It was quite evident that the pacers lacked experience and the team missed the services of their number one pacer Prasidh Krishna, who was unavailable for the first game.
Things went south quickly for Karnataka — Railways were cruising at 87 for nil after 20 overs — that Manish had to resort to spin soon. Introduced in the fourteenth over, Gowtham held one end up and bowled 11 overs on the trot till tea break, with pacers rotated from the other end. The lanky off-spinner was ripping the ball quicker through the air and getting it to turn and bounce off the pitch.
While he could have got the first wicket earlier had Devdutt Padikkal held on to the catch of Vivek at first slip, Gowtham eventually broke the partnership, dismissing Mrunal (56), thanks to a sharp catch from wicketkeeper Srinivas Sharath. Shivam Chaudhary did not trouble the scorers much as he was out for single digit. However, Vivek Singh kept the innings going for Railways, despite the drop in run-rate, largely because of the control provided by Gowtham at one end.
He continued after the tea break, bowling four more overs before getting the change of ends. Vivek, along with Arindam Ghosh ( 78 n.o), made sure that they did not lose any wickets for the next hour and a half as Karnataka struggled to break the partnership. Gowtham came back for his third spell and delivered again, getting rid of Vivek (59) in the last hour. Although Karnataka did not run over their opponents as many expected, Gowtham ensured that Railways did not run away with the game as his team was still ahead by 268 runs.
Earlier, while Yuvraj Singh ran through one end of the Karnataka lower middle-order with the second new ball, Gowtham played his shots, picking up quick boundaries on his way to a 32-ball 52, which played a huge role in taking Karnataka from 324 for six to 481.
Brief scores:
Karnataka 481 in 109.3 overs (Vivek Singh 146; Yuvraj Singh 5/93) vs
Railways 213/3 in 65.0 overs (Arindam Ghosh 78 n.o; K Gowtham 3/71)