Karnataka secured a nine-wicket victory over Jharkhand on Thursday in the third day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘C’ at Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpur.
The win secured the Mayank Aggarwal-led team the top spot with his 35 points in his seven games. Quarterfinal opponents will be announced on Friday after the remaining games are completed.
Karnataka’s headliner on the third day was Ofi K. Gowtham, who took 9 wickets on 5 wickets (28-5-75-5). From 2-for-85 overnight, Jharkhand managed to score only 201 points, giving Karnataka a target of 66 runs.
The visitors finished the run with his 18.1 overs, Nikin Jose unbeaten with 42 (45 no.o., 9×4) and R. Samarth undefeated with 24 (62b, 2×4).
Jerkhand started on the wrong foot, losing four wickets for just 22 runs in the first session, three of them going to Gowtham. Both Kumar Suraj and Virat Singh were cleaned up by Gowtham before Koushik acquired the precious scalp of his Saurabh Tiwary. Sharas. Anukul Roy (36, 116b, 3x4s) and Supriyo Chakraborty 48 (93b, 3x4s, 2x6s) stabilized the ship by scoring 86 runs for the seventh wicket before Gowtham attacked again and Supriyo wicketkeeper’s Caught by Sharath. The inning folded quickly, with the long-legged Shreyas Gopal and his V. Koushik putting the tail away.
Nikin pursued 66 and scored 42 runs, reaching the limit as many as nine. A 10-wicket win would have given Karnataka a bonus point, but in the end it didn’t matter.
The scores:
Jharkhand -1st innings: 164.
Karnataka – 1st innings: 300.
Jharkhand – 2nd innings: Kumar Deobrat c Mayank b Gowtham 20, Aryaman Sen c Sharath b Koushik 0, Kumar Suraj b Gowtham 34, Kumar Kushagra c Shreyas b Gowtham 36, Virat Singh b Gowtham 1, Saurabh Tiwary c Sharath b Koushik 4, Anukul Roy c Nikin b Koushik 36, Supriyo Chakraborty c Sharath b Gowtham 48, Nadeem lbw b Shreyas 5, Ashish Kumar c Nikin b Shreyas 2, Vinayak Vikram (not out) 1.
Extras (b-8, lb-4, nb-2): 14; Total (in 78.5 overs): 201.
Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-32, 3-86, 4-96, 5-107, 6-107, 7-193, 8-193, 9-198
Karnataka bowling: Kaverappa 6-1-17-0, Koushik 16-6-21-3, Shreyas 21.5-4-58-2, Gowtham 28-5-75-5, Shubhang Hegde 7-2-18-0.
Karnataka – 2nd innings: R. Samarth (not out) 24, Devdutt Padikkal c Supriyo b Nadeem 0, Nikin Jose (not out) 42
Total (for one wicket in 18.1 overs): 66.
Fall of wickets: 1-1.
Jharkhand bowling: Nadeem 9-3-24-1, Anukul 8.1-1-31-0, Vinayak 1-0-11-0.