Karnataka look for Innings victory over Rajasthan

Udaipur: Nov 5, 2011

After a splendid batting effort, Karnataka rode on some fine bowling performance to consolidate its position against defending champions Rajasthan at the end of the third day’s play in their Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match here today.

After piling up an imposing 623 for six declared in their first innings, Karnataka bowlers stuck to their task and bundled out Rajasthan for 255, which brought smiles into the face of visiting skipper R Vinay Kumar who had no hesitation in enforcing the follow-on on the home team.

Karnataka now find themselves 10 wickets away from an innings victory as, following-on, Rajasthan were 51 for no loss in their second innings, still trailing the visitors by 317 runs with a full day’s play left.

At stumps, openers Vaibhav Deshpande (27) and Vineet Saxena (21) were holding the fort for Rajasthan.

Earlier, resuming their first innings at the overnight score of 49 for two, majority of Rajasthan’s top-order batsmen frittered away good starts to be eventually bowled out in 77.1 overs.

Young left-arm orthodox bowler, K P Appanna emerged as wrecker-in-chief for Karnataka with figures of four for 35. He was ably supported by skipper Vinay Kumar (2/53) and his new ball partner Abhimanyu Mithun (3/66).

Ashok Maneria top-scored for Rajasthan with a fighting 57 that came off 81 balls during which he hit nine boundaries.

Apart from Maneria, Robin Bist (47), wicketkeeper Rohit Jhalani (45), Rashmi Parida (20) all got starts but failed to pull their side out of the mess.

Brief Scores: Karnataka 623 for six decl vs Rajasthan 255 and 51 for no loss (Vaibhav Deshpande 27, Vineet Saxena 21).