Indore, Dec: 24: It’s no secret that bowlers have been Karnataka’s strength this season. On Friday they were up to the task once again, in the knockouts, by piling pressure on the opposition batsmen with their aggressive approach to take their team to a commanding position in the quarterfinals of the Ranji Trophy.
In conditions that offered little help to them, S. Arvind (3/35), Vinay Kumar (2/36) and Sunil Joshi (2/43) hunted down the Madhya Pradesh batsmen for 200 in 73.5 overs.
The visitors survived the remaining 14 overs without any casualty, ending Day One at 35 for no loss at the Holkar stadium.
MP will consider themselves unlucky as Mohnish Mishra spilled an easy catch at first slip offered by Robin Uthappa in the penultimate over bowled by Ankit Sharma.
With conditions expected to help the bowlers only in the first session, Vinay’s decision to bowl first was a gamble. Looking for an early breakthrough, Vinay was as probing as ever and got past the willow consistently even as opener Jalaj Saxena (73, 129b, 12x4) looked to attack A. Mithun. The 21-year-old Mithun offered width at times and Saxena fetched most of his boundaries through the off-side.
Brief scores: Madhya Pradesh 200 in 73.5 overs (Jalaj Saxena 73, Ankit Sharma 41 n.o., S. Arvind 3/35, Vinay Kumar 2/36, S. Joshi 2/43) vs Karnataka 35/0 (Uthappa 25 batting).