By IANS,
New Delhi : Manish Pandey took Karnataka within 23 runs of a sensational victory against Delhi before bad light ended the Ranji Trophy Super League match in an exciting draw at the Roshanara club ground here Friday.
Needing 172 to win in 57 overs after 106 minutes of delayed start on the fourth and last day of the match due to a drizzle and murky light, Karnataka were reeling at 50 for three when Pandey blazed a 50 off 44 balls to put his side on the brink of victory.
The 20-year-old Bangalore Royal Challenger player, who had struck 194 in Karnataka’s 185-run win against the Uttar Pradesh last week, breathed life into visitors’ chase during his 81-minute stay and looked like seeing the side through when an unfortunate mix up with B. Akhil ended his entertaining innings that included five fours and one six.
Akhil (15) and R. Vinay (2) were at the crease with 19 overs still to be bowled when the umpires called off play in fading light.
Karnataka will take three points for their first-innings lead while Delhi will have to be content with one. Karnataka have eight points from two games, gaining full five from the Uttar Pradesh match.
For Delhi, it was their second drawn match and they have four points as they had gained three first-innings lead against Baroda.
Earlier, the last Delhi pair of Parwinder Awana (21) and Pawan Suyal (0) lasted 16 minutes to take the second innings total to 277, adding 22 more vital runs, 21 of these coming from Awana’s bat.
Suyal was caught at second slip by Akhil to give S. Arvind a five-wicket haul(5-49).
With heavy overcast conditions favouring the bowlers, Delhi tried everything to resist Karnataka’s bid for victory.
Awana (2-54) got the breakthrough in the very first over when he had opener C.M. Gautam caught by Shikhar Dhawan at second slip.
Then, Amit Verma struggled to deal with the swinging deliveries and in his 28-run partnership with opener K.B.Pawan (29) could contribute just five runs from 40 balls. Narwal ended his misery, trapping him legbefore and Karnataka were reduced to 34 for two.
Rahul Dravid (5) could not steer the side out of choppy waters as he edged a moving Narwal delivery to wicket-keeper Puneet Bisht.
Pandey added 46 runs with Tilak Naidu (22) and 36 with Akhil to get closer to victory but could not take them past the line.
Karnataka next play Bengal at Mysore Nov 17 while Delhi take on Uttar Pradesh at Lucknow Nov 24.