CRICKET / Karnataka needs seven more wickets on the final day for an outright victory

For over a decade, Robin Uthappa has been struggling to live up to the promise he once showed. Right through a chequered career, the 30-year-old’s flamboyance caused him more harm than good and inconsistency remained the only consistent factor since he made his first-class debut in 2002.
But on Sunday, Uthappa’s whirlwind 160 stood out like none of his 14 other centuries in the Ranji Trophy. It overshadowed the effort of debutant half-centurion Abhishek Reddy and was true to his reputation of being a compulsive stroke-maker. His rampaging ways left Rajasthan in a daze and set up Karnataka’s course to a much-needed victory.
For the record, Rajasthan has been set a target of 358.
On Monday, the host needs 316 to win with seven wickets in hand. But, with the Karnataka pacers sending back three top-order batsmen, including the seasoned Vineet Saxena and hard-hitting skipper Ashok Menaria, the defending champion is hugely favoured to win.
Playing his 147th Ranji innings, Uthappa fell short of improving on his best score of 162 that came against Madhya Pradesh in his seventh innings in November 2004.
With every passing session, Karnataka inched closer to victory. Armed with a first-innings lead of 39 runs in the morning, Karnataka plotted an outright victory. Uthappa’s savage batting — that produced 109 out of the 181 unexpected runs in the post-lunch session — was in keeping with the plan of making Rajasthan bat at least 15 overs on the penultimate evening.
In the post-tea session, Karnataka declared at 318 for five in 63 overs and went for the kill. S. Arvind, who took two wickets in the first hour to hasten the end of Rajasthan’s first innings, struck twice in the last hour to leave the host staggering. David Mathias sent back Maneria and pushed Rajasthan closer to defeat.
But for Uthappa’s aggressive batting, Karnataka could not have found itself in a position to declare when it did.
Aided by some unimaginative captaincy by Menaria and the bowlers going through the motions without bowling to their chosen fields, Uthappa made merry.
Though Uthappa faced 128 deliveries for his 160 and hit four sixes and 25 boundaries. With 124 runs off the big hits, Uthappa left the bowlers demoralised.
From a copy-book on-drive to a switch-hit, Uthappa played every conceivable stroke.
He made room to send the ball across the boundary in the region between point and third-man region.
On the on-side, he was quick to punish anything bowled back of the length and even hit successive sixes over midwicket off left-arm spinner Ajay Singh, who was the most expensive.
The scores:
Karnataka — 1st innings: 281.
×Powered By shopperz011120152227Rajasthan — 1st innings: Pranay Sharma b Arvind 11, Vineet Saxena run out 2, Vaibhav Deshpande c Samarth b Mathias 13, Ashok Menaria c Gautam b Vinay Kumar 17, Rajat Bhatia lbw b Vinay Kumar 99, Puneet Yadav c Samarth b Binny 28, Dishant Yagnik b Mathias 21, Deepak Chahar c Samarth b Vinay Kumar 13, Ajay Singh c Gautam b Arvind 6, Tanveer ul-Haq c Gautam b Arvind 8, Aniket Choudhary (not out) 15; Extras (b-4, nb-3, w-2): 9; Total (in 91.4 overs): 242.
Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-13, 3-44, 4-48, 5-123, 6-183, 7-211, 8-218, 9-219.
Karnataka bowling: Vinay Kumar 22-9-42-3, Arvind 24.4-12-42-3, Binny 12-1-39-1, Mathias 12-3-41-2, Shreyas Gopal 10-0-30-0, Suchith 7-1-24-0, Samarth 2-0-2-0, Abhishek Reddy 2-0-18-0.
Karnataka — 2nd innings: Abhishek Reddy st. Yagnik b Bhatia 69, Mayank Agarwal c Chahar b Tanveer 8, R. Samarth b Bhatia 6, Robin Uthappa c Menaria b Choudhary 160, Stuart Binny c (sub) b Ajay Singh 29, C.M. Gautam (not out) 36, J. Suchith (not out) 3; Extras (b-1, lb-4, nb-2): 7; Total (for five wickets decl. in 63 overs): 318.
Fall of wickets: 1-49, 2-58, 3-159, 4-210, 5-307.
Rajasthan bowling: Chahar 0.2-0-0-0, Tanveer 12.4-2-58-1, Choudhary 14-0-90-1, Bhatia 17-5-44-2, Ajay Singh 15-0-104-1, Menaria 4-0-17-0.
Rajasthan — 2nd innings: Pranay Sharma (batting) 24, Vineet Saxena c Gautam b Arvind 6, Vaibhav Deshpande c Samarth b Arvind 0, Ashok Menaria b Mathias 9, Tanveer ul-Haq (batting) 0; Extras (lb-2, nb-1): 3, Total (for three wickets in 15 overs): 42.
Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-23, 3-38.
Karnataka bowling: Vinay Kumar 5-2-16-0, Arvind 6-2-20-2, Mathias 2-1-4-1, Binny 2-2-0-0.