Vinay comes to Karnataka's rescue

BENGALURU: Veteran R. Vinay Kumar has been delivering mediocre performances with the ball this season, but his exploits with the bat have come handy for Karnataka. On Wednesday, Vinay hogged the limelight with the bat as his unbeaten 83 helped Karnataka edge past Rajasthan’s first innings score of 224 before being bowled out for 263 in the quarter-final against Rajasthan here on Wednesday.

The visitors were 11 for no loss at stumps on day two.

Rajasthan would have controlled the day’s proceedings had they broken the stand between Vinay and Ronit More. Their 97-run stand for the 10th wicket frustrated Mahipal Lomror’s bowlers after they had reduced the hosts to 166/9

It was Vinay’s second fifty of the season and 14th overall of his first-class career. Though Rajesh Bishnoi gave him a reprieve at 56, the damage had already been done.  Rajasthan skipper Mahipal introduced himself in a bid to break the stand before tea but his attempt proved futile. It was Rahul Chahar who dismissed Ronit (10) who had already faced 59 balls by then. Despite taking the new ball, the leg-spinner was introduced as pacer Tanveer-Ul-Haq went off the field due to a strain.  

Karnataka had a disastrous start. Nischal Dega threw his wicket away by edging Deepak Chahar’s outswinger to wicket-keeper in the third over of the day. Soon, Ravikumar Samarth followed him back to the pavilion after a promising start (32 runs of 64 balls). The experienced duo of Karun Nair (7) and Manish Pandey (7) also fell by the wayside. KV Siddharth’s 52 brought some cheer to the host dressing room. After his dismissal, Karnataka lost three wickets in a span of 10 overs.