Rampant Karnataka defeats Bangladesh A by 4 wickets

Rampant Karnataka defeats Bangladesh A by 4 wickets: The reigning champions of Indian domestic cricket, Karnataka carried on their blistering run of form against Bangladesh A as well as they defeated the visitors by 4 wickets. The Karnataka side chased down the target of 181 runs on the final day to secure this sparkling victory as generally results are hard to come by in 3-day matches. Karnataka had laid a solid foundation for this win right from the day one after their bowlers had put them on the path of ascendancy in the match.

Bangladesh A had won the toss and chose to bat. For Karnataka, the regular skipper Vinay Kumar was ruled out from the match due to illness. While many important Karnataka players were missing the match as they were busy in BCCI’s preparatory camp. The Wicket-keeper batter CM Gautam was leading the side. The 19-year-old Prasidh Krishna who had recently represented Bellary Tuskers in the Karnataka Premiere League (KPL) was the chief destructor with the red cherry.

The right-arm pacer drew the first blood when he got rid of Rony Talukdar on the first ball of the second over of the match. After that Sharath sent back the Bangladeshi skipper Mominul Haque back to the hut. Anamul Haque and Liton Das tried to steady the innings but then Krishna struck thrice to leave the tourists reeling. Prasidh Krishna grabbed the crucial scalps of Bangladeshi international players namely Anamul Haque, Soumya Sarkar and Nasir Hossain. Suddenly, Bangladesh was struggling at 41/5. But amidst all this, Liton Das looked in imperious touch and blasted 11 boundaries in his knock of 50 runs which came at run a ball. The visitors got bundled out for 158 runs in 38.3 runs.

But Bangladeshi bowlers weren’t ready to give up and especially their spinners Saqlain Sajib and Shuvagata Hom who reduced Karnataka to 100/6 with players like Robin Uthappa and Mayank Agarwal getting out for low scores. But then came a defying partnership between Shishir Bhavane and Jagadeesha Suchith which demolished Bangladeshi’s hopes to remain alive in the match. They put on 127 runs for the 7^th wicket. Bhavane was the star of the show and played an enterprising knock of 88 runs. By the time, Karnataka got all-out they were already leading by 129 runs.

Now the onus was on the Bangladesh A batsmen to pull off something magical for their side. This time all the batters got off to good starts. The opener Anamul Haque who had missed out in the 1st innings played a blinder 87 ball 89 run knock which included 8 fours and 5 hits over the ropes. The likes of Nasir, Sarkar and Liton couldn’t convert their starts into big scores. From 224/4, Bangladesh A got bundled out for 309 runs with Suchith spinning a web and getting 6 wickets in the 2^nd innings. Meanwhile, Hom scored his second fifty of the match. Bangladesh ended up on 309 runs which meant the hosts were set a target of 181 runs with half day remaining on the final day of the match.

Although small targets are always tricky and Karnataka must have their heart in the mouth when they lost their first two wickets for 13 runs. But Agarwal and Gautam stitched a partnership of 60 runs for the 3^rd wicket to calm down Karnataka’s nerves. Captain Gautam scored 49 runs off just 35 balls with the help 10 glorious boundaries. Abhishek Reddy, Sheryas Gopal and Bhavane played crucial knocks and helped the side chase down the target.

It was not that Bangladesh A didn’t put up a fight, but they were too much behind in the match after their 1^st innings drubbing and the partnership between Bhavane and Suchith in Karnataka’s 1^st innings further piled up miseries for them. Even after their best efforts with the bat and ball in the 2^nd innings, they couldn’t do anything else than giving a tough fight. Their poor batting on the first day left them in a situation where they were just trying to stage a comeback in the match than making substantial progress for a win.

Brief Scores:

1^st Innings: Bangladesh A – 158 (Shuvagata Hom 55, Liton Das 50; Prasidh 5/49)

Karnataka – 287 (Shishir Bhavane 88, Jagadeesha Suchith 41; Shuvagata Hom 4/45)

2^nd Innings: Bangladesh A – 309 (Anamul Haque 89, Shuvagata Hom 50; Jagadeesha Suchith 6/60)

Karnataka –185/6 (CM Gautam 49, Shreyas Gopal 40; Al-Amin Hossain 2/23)

Karnataka beat Bangladesh A by 4 wickets.