A youngster and a seasoned veteran dug Karnataka out of a hole and helped them nose ahead after wiping out a 142-run deficit on Day Three.
KB Pawan, in only his second first class game, bats with Rahul Dravid for over five hours, in an unbeaten 126-run partnership as Karnataka wipe out their 142-run first innings deficit against Mumbai
MUMBAI: A youngster and a seasoned veteran dug Karnataka out of a hole and helped them nose ahead after wiping out a 142-run deficit on Day Three of their Elite Group A Ranji Trophy opener.
KB Pawan, all of 19, batted with a maturity that belied his age, while Rahul Dravid, the man who has held many an Indian innings together, never dropped his guard in an unbeaten 126-run partnership for the second wicket.
Going into the final day, Karnataka have a 53-run lead but will have to play out of their skins if they are to take anything home from this game, as Mumbai are guaranteed two points thanks to their first innings lead.
Dravid, who made a handsome 40 in the first innings, was the big wicket Mumbai wanted after he walked to the crease shortly after lunch at the fall of Roland Barrington’s (40) wicket.
In the first innings Dravid had fallen victim to Ramesh Powar. But this time around, after settling down, Dravid hit the off-spinner for two consecutive sixes — the first over wide long-on and the second smashed into the glass panes of the media box, located beside the sightscreen — as he quickly established control over proceedings.
Dravid was beaten on a couple of occasions as his innings began slowly. He faced his first 11 balls from medium-pacer Rajesh Verma, before sweetly timing the right-arm medium-pacer twelfth to the straight boundary to get off the mark.
Twenty-two balls later he rocked back and drove Powar through the covers for the second of his 10 boundaries. It was off left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla that Dravid found his third boundary, when he glided the ball to the third man fence.
Dravid once again played the ball late against all-rounder Abhishek Nayar and as the ball raced away to the fence, Karnataka overcame the deficit.
In between the boundaries and the sixes were periods where the former Indian skipper preferred to either leave the ball alone or drop it dead at his feet. There was no element of risk in his 178-ball knock leave a couple of tight singles.
At the other end, Pawan didn’t flinch from the task at hand. He slog-swept Powar for a boundary and then hit a six with a short-arm pull to bring up his fifty.
Pawan, who moved from Mysore to Bangalore to play competitive cricket, was dropped a couple of seasons ago.
But the youngster, after initially returning to Mysore disappointed, travelled back to Bangalore and scored tons of runs to earn back his place in the under-19 squad.
Last year, he traveled to Australia for a coaching stint, and was prompted to open the innings after batting for most of his nascent career at No.3 or below.
With Robin Uthappa on national duty, Pawan stepped up the order and batted out 214 balls. Dravid and Pawan are each in sight of centuries and if they both reach the landmark it could just turn the tide in this game.
.Scorecard
Karnataka 1st innings: 195
Mumbai (1st innings; Overnight 302 for seven)
S Kukreja c T Naidu b N C Aiyappa 66, W Jaffer b NC Aiyappa 55, A Rahane lbw b Sunil Joshi 0, A Muzumdar lbw b Anil Kumble 23, P Naik run out (R Vinay Kumar) 78, A Nayar lbw b Sunil Joshi 24, R Powar c C Raghu b S Joshi 10, A Agarkar lbw b R Vinay Kumar 24, V Samant c T Naidu b R Vinay Kumar 24, I Abdulla lbw b R Vinay Kumar 18, R Varma not out 1
Extras: (B2 LB3 NB9) 14
Total: (in 96 overs; all out) 337
Fall of wickets: 1-118, 2-121, 3-125, 4-173, 5-217, 6-231, 7-274, 8-306, 9-331, 10-337
Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 21-6-50-3, NC Aiyappa 16-3-60-2, B Akhil 12-1-45-0, A Kumble 24-2-90-1, Sunil Joshi 20-0-67-3, C Raghu 3-0-20-0
Karnataka (2nd innings): B Rowland b R Verma 40, KB Pawan batting 76, R Dravid batting 77
Extras: (NB2) 2
Total: (in 77 overs; for one wicket) 195
Fall of wickets: 1-69.
Bowling: A Agarkar 11-2-34-0, R Verma 12-4-29-1, A Nayar 11-1-38-0, R Powar 21-4-66-0, I Abdulla 19-7-22-0, A Rahane 1-0-01-0, P Naik 2-0-05-0
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