Six Appeal: Ronit More Bowls Karnataka To Incredible Victory Over Railways

NEW DELHI: Pacer Ronit More orchestrated a dramatic collapse of Railways to bowl Karnataka to an astonishing 10-wicket victory on the final day of their four-day Group ‘B’ Ranji Trophy match on Thursday.
With the better part of two days lost to rain and poor light, a result at the start of the final day appeared improbable. Karun Nair’s men had already taken the first innings lead of 29 runs and none would have begrudged them three points against Railways’ one.For all intents and purposes there was little left to play for in this fixture.
That was until More ran through the opposition. With superb assistance from fellow pacers Abhimanyu Mithun (3/17) and Prateek Jain (1/28), More ensured Karnataka needed no more than 30 overs to skittle Railways for a paltry 79 in their second essay, leaving the visitors with a victory target of 51 runs.
Openers Rohan Kadam (27) and Devdutt Padikkal wasted no time in overhauling the score as Karnataka bagged seven points from this match. With a tally of 24, they now have a firm chance of making the quarterfinals.
The day belonged to Karnataka’s three pacers. With the ball keeping low and the pitch offering uneven bounce, they hit the deck with precision to frustrate the opposition. Railways’ batsmen did not have the wherewithal to weather the storm and ended up as sitting ducks. Opener Mrunal Devdhar (38) did show the way but was the only batsman to finish with double-digit score as none ventured down that path.
The in-form Prateek Jain made early inroads when he lured opener Ashish Sherawat into a forward drive, the batsman mistiming his shot against the short ball and offering KV Siddharth at low catch at first slip. At the other end, Saurabh Singh was trapped in front by Mithun with just one run on the board. Plenty was expected of skipper Arindam Ghosh and Padikkal offered him a lifeline when he grassed a catch at slip. Ghosh though decided to look a gift horse in the mouth, poking a ball from Mithun, which kept low, to wicketkeeper Sharath Srinivas.
When Mahesh Rawat offered an edge to Sharath off More, leaving Railways tottering at 20/4, Karnataka sniffed a chance. Harish Tyagi and Dinesh Mor poked around for a bit in a bid to salvage a draw, but were both sent back in quick time by More, who was on a song on Thursday. Railways lost four batsmen for the addition of a single run, including three in a single over — the 28th of the innings. By then, they were 63 for 9 with no hope of redemption.
In his next over, the final one of the innings as it turned out, More mopped up Amit Mishra, who flicked a catch to Prateek Jain at midwicket. Kadam and Padikkal then completed the formalities in some hurry, perhaps, a little wary that bad light could scuttle an incredible victory.
“STUCK TO OUR PLANS”
In the four matches that More featured in the tournament before this contest, he had picked up nine wickets. He was short of wickets but not confidence and it showed in his bowling on the day as he returned his best figures of the season.
Speaking about the pacers’ performance, the 27-year-old said, “Given the fact that we had lost a lot of game time due to bad weather, as a bowling unit we decided we would go all out. The plan was to make the batsmen play. Both Mithun and Prateek got early wickets and that was crucial. When I came out to bowl, I got a wicket as well and that kept the momentum going.”
Karun Nair & Co head home for their last two league engagements against Madhya Pradesh (in Shivamogga) and Baroda (in Bengaluru).
SCOREBOARD
Railways (I innings): 182
Karnataka (I innings, o/n 199/9): Sharath Srinivas b Pradeep 62, Prateek Jain (not out) 8. Extras (NB-2, W-1, B-4, LB-2) 9. Total (allout; 71.1 overs) 211.
Bowling: Amit Mishra 20-4-70-5, T Pradeep 15.1-5-29-1, Himanshu Sangwan 18-3-57-3, Avinash Yadav 12-0-36-1, Harsh Tyagi 6-0-13-0.
Railways (II innings): Mrunal Devdhar c Siddharth b Mithun 38, Ashish Sehrawat c Siddharth b Prateek 0, Saurabh Singh lbw Mithun 0, Arindam Ghosh c Sharath b Mithun 3, Mahesh Rawat c Sharath b More 5, Harsh Tyagi c Sharath b More 8, Dinesh Mor c Padikkal b More 6, Avinash Yadav b More 0, T Pradeep lbw More 0, Amit Mishra c Jain b More 8, Himanshu Sangwan (not out) 8. Extras (NB-1, B-1, LB-1) 3. Total (all out in 30 overs) 79.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-1, 3-15, 4-20, 5-42, 6-63, 7-63, 8-63, 9-63.
Bowling: Abhimanyu Mithun 9-3-17-3, Prateek Jain 10-4-28-1, Ronit More 11-3-32-6.
Karnataka (II innings): Rohan Kadam (not out) 27, Devdutt Padikkal (not out) 24. Extras 0. Total (no loss; 8.2 overs) 51.
Amit Mishra 3-0-20-0, Himanshu Sangwan 3-0-17-0, T Pradeep 1.2-0-9-0, Avinash Yadav 1-0-5-0.