Railways well and truly on top

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 24. A spineless Karnataka line-up finds itself on the mat. In what is increasingly resembling a wrestling bout, Railways has pinned down its rival and the count has already begun. Karnataka, much everyone's surprise, is not making any real effort to get up and make a match of it.

That is how this Ranji Trophy quarterfinal looks like at the end of the third day at the Karnail Singh Stadium.

In just under two sessions, Kulamani Parida and Tejinder Pal Singh `turned' the match in Railways' favour. After Karnataka resumed its first innings at 37 without loss, the two spinners took four wickets each and helped their team bowl out the opposition at 237.

Railways, in spite of enjoying a first innings lead of 214 runs, chose not to enforce follow-on. To add insult to injury, Railway openers Sanjay Bangar and Amit Pagnis treated the Karnataka bowlers with disdain and hit up 106.

With an overall lead of 320 runs and all second innings wickets intact, Railways is happy to get some batting practice ahead of the semifinal clash against Punjab. The host is in no mood to declare at any stage and force an outright victory in the remaining two days.

Skipper Venkatesh Prasad, wicketless in the first innings, chose not to bowl in the second innings. The word from the Karnataka dressing room was that Prasad had ``pain in the neck.'' The Railways in fact had indeed proved just that for the entire Karnataka team.

In the first session, Karnataka was coasting along merrily at 125 for one before off-spinner Parida and left-arm spinner Tejinder struck twice each to make it 130 for five.

J. Arun Kumar, who smashed eight boundaries in his 55, holed out to Zakir Hussain at long on. But it was the fall of three wickets at 130 which truly broke Karnataka's back. Rowland Barrington, who proved an ideal foil to Arun after the early exit of opener Mithun Beerala, became Parida's second victim adjudged leg- before. In the next over, Tejinder removed an off-form Vijay Bharadwaj, caught at forward short leg and off the next ball, accepted a return catch from G.K. Anil Kumar.

In Railways' second essay, Bangar came up with some delightful strokes. The right-hander smashed three boundaries in one over of medium-pacer Akhil and later reached his half-century with a sequence of 4, 6 and 4 - all in the mid-wicket region - off Yalgivi, the off-spinner.

The left-handed Amit Pagnis, too, had his moments. In successive overs from Ganesh and Vijay Bharadwaj, Pagnis cracked two boundaries each before choosing to play second fiddle to Bangar.

The scores:

Railways - 1st innings: 451

Karnataka - 1st innings: J. Arun Kumar c Hussain b Parida 55, Mithun Beerala lbw b Bangar 18, Rowland Barrington lbw b Parida 35, Vijay Bharadwaj c Goud b Tejinder 1, Thilak Naidu c Khonalkar b Tejinder 46, G.K. Anil Kumar c and b Tejinder 0, B. Akhil st. Abhay Sharma b Parida 18, Dodda Ganesh c Bangar b Khonalkar 9, Anand Yalvigi c Bangar b Tejinder 18, Venkatesh Prasad c Abhay Sharma b Parida 3, Santosh Vadeyaraj (not out) 0, Extras (b-9, lb-8, nb-17) 34, Total 237.

Fall of wickets: 1-51, 2-125, 3-130, 4- 130, 5-130, 6-172, 7-196, 8-230, 9-235.

Railways bowling: Harvinder Singh 10-2- 30-0, Zakir Hussain 4-2-9-0, Tejinder Pal Singh 26-6-64-4, Kulamani Parida 26.5-62-4, Sanjay Bangar 8-0-35-1, Shriyas Khonalkar 5-0-20-1.

Railways - 2nd innings: Amit Pagnis (batting) 53, Sanjay Bangar (batting) 47, Extras (b-5, lb-1) 6, Total (for no loss) 106.

Karnataka bowling: Ganesh 7-0-21-0, Akhil 2-0-14-0, Bharadwaj 6-1-15-0, Vadeyaraj 10-0-24-0, Yalvigi 5-0-26-0.

Karnataka's B. Akhil is stumped by Railways' wicketkeeper Abhay Sharma off the bowling of Kulamani Parida in their Ranji Trophy quarterfinals in New Delhi on Saturday.

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