da dobrowin： A light shower in the final session forced stumps to be called almosttwelve overs early and prevented Hyderabad from mopping up theKarnataka tail this evening
Sankhya Krishnan14-Apr-2000A light shower in the final session forced stumps to be called almosttwelve overs early and prevented Hyderabad from mopping up theKarnataka tail this evening. Tomorrow the Ranji Trophy holders will beformally administered the push from this year’s edition, a result thatwas arguably on the cards by the end of the first dayitself. Karnataka’s last pair averted the follow on but there will belittle relief in the home camp, trailing as they are by 188 runs at523/9.Not even a washout of the last day’s play can save Karnataka. Theplaying conditions affirm that in case of a no result on firstinnings, a comparison of run rates will decide the winner. Karnatakahas an inferior run rate, a natural corollary to having an inferiorbatting, bowling and fielding.Karnataka started the fourth day trailing by 442 and with the secondnew ball due in five overs. Raju and Kanwaljit bowled three overs eachbefore the new ball was handed to Fiaz Ahmed who had beendisappointing yesterday, with 40 runs being taken off his six overs.Bharadwaj became the fourth successive batsman to get to his fifty andneither he nor Barrington seemed to be in undue discomfort as theseamers tried to find their rhythm.The first boundary off the bat came in the 13th over of the day whenBarrington got Fiaz away between second slip and gully to third man,bringing up the 300 in the process. But when Barrington tried tostreak one through the slips in the same over, he saw Mohd.Azharuddin’s left hand come in the way at the last possible moment andcatch the ball inches off the ground at second slip. In that onemoment the difference between the two sides was there to see inunmistakable terms.Barrington’s stout resistance at the wicket had netted him 65 runs andalthough Bharadwaj played a glorious cover drive off NP Singh, Fiazwas not done yet as he had Thilak Naidu caught down the leg side byRiaz Sheikh in his next over. Naidu tried to help the ball to backwardsquare leg but the bounce defeated him and suddenly two wickets hadgone down for nine runs against the run of play to leave Karnataka at311/4.Vijay flirted with danger when he followed one outside off stump fromFiaz and although the fielders appeared convinced that he’d got anick, umpire Jamula showed no interest. Satwalkar had replaced NPSingh at the pavilion end and Bharadwaj played a classy extra coverdrive, putting his front foot down and hitting on the rise to send itcrashing into the advertising boards. Fiaz went off after a nippyspell of 8-1-29-2 and Raju got some turn and bounce outside off stumprightaway.One such delivery flicked Vijay’s bat on its way to the keeper andKarnataka’s middle order was collapsing like a house of cards. Afterlunch another flicker of resistance came to an end when Bharadwajstepped out to drive Raju on the leg side and ended up presenting thebowler with a simple c&b for 90. Sunil Joshi walked out with a runnerin Mithun Beerala after having hurt his foot at a practice sessionthis morning. He showed his hand early when he went for a almightyheave across the line and connected thin air. Joshi is nothing if notan entertainer and soon enough he was connecting leather with the meatof the bat, savaging Raju with the biggest hit of the match, the balllanding in the uninhabited stands at deep midwicket.The bowlers gave him a wide berth after that with three and even fourfielders on the boundary line. Raju did bowl a beauty that turned andwent through Joshi’s gate, only to pass over the stumps. Hyderabad sawthe back of Akhil when he turned a ball pitched up on leg from Rajuinto the hands of forward short leg. Ganesh and Joshi now cametogether in the most entertaining association of the innings. Joshipulled Raju on bended knee over the fence at deep backward square andhis fifty came with another six over the straight boundary. Ganeshjoined the party with an authentic late cut to the square third manfence off Kanwaljit Singh that would have made any top order batsmanproud and the runs began to flow fast and thick now.The 70 run stand (66 minutes, 100 balls) was finally broken when FiazAhmed trapped Joshi leg before for 72 as he played back. Although RiazSheikh than dropped a straightforward chance offered by Prasad,Kanwaljit had him spoon a catch to midwicket soon to leave Karnatakaat 508/9 with four runs still needed to avoid the follow on. Ganeshhit three boundaries in one over off Fiaz to spare Karnataka’s blushesalthough Hyderabad wouldn’t have been too unhappy about that, havingalready spent a long time in the field. Ganesh brought up his fiftyoff just seventy balls but dark clouds were now hovering over theground and sure enough the sun vanished under a cover and a lightdrizzle enveloped the ground as the umpires called off play at 3.56p.m.