Satish, Gautam batter TN; K’taka take three points

[1]

Massive unbeaten knocks by Karnataka’s overnight batsman Ganesh Satish (200, 418b, 18x4, 1x6, 1x5) and wicketkeeper CM Gautam 130 (171b, 13x4) knocked the wind out of Tamil Nadu on the final day of the Ranji Trophy match at the MAC here on Monday.

The pair’s whirlwind partnership of 243 runs off 319 deliveries saw Karnataka better the home team’s firstinnings total of 538, and with that, helped them gain three points from the outing.

Tamil Nadu, for their part, collected one. The vistors scored 562 for five in 187.4 overs.

After two matches apiece, Karnakata and Tamil Nadu have four and two points respectively.

Striding to the crease with his team still in arrears with 300 runs, Satish, resuming on 65, simply went about his task like a monk with a mind at peace.

Even though a couple of wickets fell in the morning session, the talented righthander proved to be a thorn in the flesh of Tamil Nadu bowlers. However, it was Satish’s partner, Gautam, who took the fight to the opponent camp with his aggressive approach. Gautam did everything he could to upset the spinners’ rhythm – he swept, revereswept and used his feet with élan.

In hindsight, Gautam’s optimism egged on Satish’s resolve further. The duo, playing sensibly, kept rotating the strike at will before cashing in on loose deliveries to ship them out of their sights. Satish reached his fifth first-class ton when he flicked speedster M.Mohammed to midwicket for three. The celebrations that followed were obviously ecstatic, still, Gautam's exertion of joy upon reaching his sixth three-figure milestone in first-class, was matchless.

Gautam, after sweeping leg-spinner M. Ashwin to bring up his quick-fire century off 142 deliveries, dislocated his right shoulder when he indulged himself in a wild windmill-like swing of his arm.
That was probably the only way Gautam would have left the field of play.

Nonetheless, after the fall of Sunil Raju's wicket, he came back to finish off the job with his partner.
Usually a safe bet as a fielding unit, Tamil Nadu fared poorly on this occasion. The dropped catches, there were three in all, came back to haunt the last year's runners-up. Satish, who was letoff twice by R. Prasanna and Abhinav Mukund, made TN pay dearly for their selflessness.

One could sense the wheels coming off Tamil Nadu's wagon even as the visitors walked back for tea at 455 for five.

TN skipper L. Balaji, who produced impressive fig ures of 21-10-30-1, did all that he could by changing bowlers, switching ends and requesting a new cher ry in search of that elusive wicket. But none worked.

Off-spinner Malolan Rangarajan, who had taken two wickets on the third day, added one more to his tally to finish with figures of 47-12-119-3. Debutant legspinner Ashwin picked up his maiden first-class wicket when he caught Amit Verma (31) off his own bowling.