Delhi slump to crushing loss against Karnataka

BANGALORE: A win at last. That was thefeeling in the Karnataka camp after they registered their maiden victory of theseason at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday.Needing to bat out the entire final day to retain the three points for the first innings lead of 66, Delhi did put up a fight with veterans Mithun Manhas and Rajat Bhatia resisting for nearly three hours during the course of their 110-run sixth-wicket stand. But once they were dealt with, it was Karnataka all the way.The sixpoints the hosts gained from this 159-run victory took them to 11 from fivegames, the same as Delhi and gave them some sort of a platform from where theycan attempt to relaunch their campaign. Delhi have played one game more and itwill be more about staying in the group from here on and not gettingrelegated.It wasn't easy out there for the bowlers with the fourthday track playing better than expected. The newish ball -- 12 overs were bowledwith it on Day Three --- was always going to be crucial for either side and whenovernight batsman Mohit Sharma was consumed by wicketkeeper CM Gautam off arising delivery from Abhimanyu Mithun in the day's third over, Karnataka hadbegun well.But the next four hours were to belong to Delhi as firstthe other overnight batsman, Manhas (80, 260m, 168b, 11x4), and left-handerVaibhav Rawal dropped anchor. For nearly an hour more, there were lots of oohsand aahs as the Karnataka pace trio of Mithun, skipper Vinay Kumar and new ladHS Sharath gave it their all, but no wicket fell.In-between, one ofthe two on-field umpires, RM Deshpande, down with an upset stomach since Mondaynight, had to be rushed to the hospital after suffering from dehydration,meaning that a local umpire, SM Yusuf, had to take up the leg-umpiring duties,all adding to the drama.Soon, Yusuf, who the two teams had agreed would refer any line decision at his end to the third umpire, was brought into the picture by Rohan Pandit, the other umpire. Rawal (13, 58m) hadto go but fortunately for Delhi, Bhatia, the next batsman in, was just the rightman with his cool, calm demeanour.