Published: Feb 02, 2014, 01:45 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 02, 2014, 01:46 PM (IST)
Hyderabad: Feb 2, 2014
Karnataka are marching towards their target of 157 to record an outright victory over Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy 2013-14 final at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. They lost the wicket of Robin Uthappa after a great start, but Lokesh Rahul is still in the middle and is taking them to victory.
Karnataka’s chase started before lunch, but once they returned Rahul and Uthappa took the attack. Uthappa started things off by smashing a few boundaries. When the spinner came in, he was ready to charge to him and tried to unsettle his rhythm. There were a few hits he smashed down the ground for four.
Rahul then turned it on, seemingly influenced by Uthappa. When Chirag Khurana came in, he was smashed for two sixes over long-on and then smashed through point for a four.
Uthappa carted Akshay Darekar for a four over his head and then tried to play a deft sweep. Instead, the ball hit his bat and lobbed up, as the first-slip took the catch.
Amit Verma came in at No 3 as Ganesh Sathish injured himself while fielding. He immediately had a life as he edged to the keeper off Darekar, but was put down.
Brief scores:
Maharashtra 305 and 366 (Ankit Bawne 61, Keday Jadhav 112; R Vinay Kumar 4 for 116, Shreyas Gopal 4 for 47) lead Karnataka 515 and 71 for 1 (Robin Uthappa 36, KL Rahul 29*, Akshay Darekar 1 for 18) by 86 runs.
