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Gurbani takes four as Vidarbha peg back Karnataka

Pacer Gurbani takes four wickets as Vidarbha fight back against Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy semifinals

By Unnikrishnan
Rajneesh Gurbani

Kolkata, December 20: Vidarbha made a brilliant fightback against Karnataka on the fourth day of the Ranji Trophy semifinals at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday (December 20).

The stunning turnaround in fortunes of Vidarbha was made possible through the high-quality swing bowling of Rajneesh Gurbani. The right-arm pacer, who had captured five wickets in Karnataka's first innings, took four wickets for 35 runs to reduce Karnataka to 111 for 7 in 43 overs, chasing 198 for a win.

Earlier, with the bat too, Vidarbha fought hard to establish a handy lead of 197 after getting bowled out for 313 in 84.1 overs.



Apart from former Karnataka batsman Ganesh Satish who made 81, Aditya Sarvate made a fine 55 off 92 balls with five fours and a six to lead Vidarbha's fight.

Perhaps, drawing vigour from that gritty effort by batsmen, the Vidarbha bowlers bowled with zeal in the second innings, giving nothing away for the Karnataka batsmen.

Mayank Agarwal did not take off for the second time in the match, falling to Umesh Yadav. Karnataka soon found themselves in a spot of bother at 40 for 3 after Siddesh Neral dismissed D Nischal and R Samarth in quick succession.

Karnataka seemed to have stemmed the rot through a 41-run alliance for the fourth wicket between Karun Nair and CM Gautam. But Gurbani took over from this point and jettisoned a fluent Karun Nair.

That point onwards Karnataka did not have any respite as Gurbani dished out top class pace bowling to grab three more wickets. Had Wasim Jaffer not dropped Shreyas Gopal off Gurbani, Karnataka would have been in far deeper trouble.

Now, Shreyas and skipper R Vinay Kumar (19 batting) have a big task at their hand.

Story first published: Wednesday, December 20, 2017, 19:16 [IST]
Other articles published on Dec 20, 2017