Ranji Trophy 2014-15: Karnataka hang on to force draw against Baroda

Shreyas Gopal

Mysuru, Jan 24 (IANS) Defending champions Karnataka just about managed to hang on to force a draw with Baroda in the Group A Ranji Trophy league match here on Saturday.

A half-century by young Shreyas Gopal (51, 142b, 4x4) and skipper C.M. Gautam's battling 30 rescued Karnataka from a certain defeat as they finished the day on 153 for 7, chasing a target of 288 after being 50 for six at one stage.

Earlier, Baroda added precious runs to their overnight score of 204 for eight with overnight not out batsman Swapnil Singh scoring 50 (114b, 9x4) to raise visions of a possible victory.

Baroda seamer Sagar Mangalorkar scythed through the Karnataka innings with a four-wicket haul before Gautam and Gopal added 85 runs for the seventh wicket to save the blushes for the hosts.

Yet again, the Karnataka batting proved to be a let-down with the top order crumbling under pressure, and yet again, it was Gopal who had to rise to the occasion to play out a draw.

Baroda, who had taken the first innings lead, picked up three points, while Karnataka had to be content with one.

Brief scores:

At Surat - Vidarbha vs Gujarat, Vidarbha 1st innings 236 all out, Gujarat 1st innings 248 all out, Vidarbha 2nd innings 307 for eight (Srikant Wagh 20; Ramesh Powar 5/99, Rush Kalaria 3/44) Gujarat 2nd innings 175 all out (Parthiv Patel 73, Bhargav Merai 32; Akshay Wakhare 7/70). Vidarbha won by 120 runs.

At Porvorim - Goa vs Assam, Goa 1st innings 175 all out, Assam 1st innings 435 for eight, Goa 2nd innings 268 all out (Amogh Desai 63, Keenan Vaz 59; Swarupam Purkayastha 6/76, Abu Nechim 2/24) Assam second innings 12 for no loss, Assam won by 10 wickets.

At Mysuru - Baroda 335 and 254 all out (Deepak Hooda 67, Arvind Sreenath 3 for 27, Ronit More 2 for 50) vs Karnataka 302 and 153 for seven (Shreyas Gopal 51; Sagar Mangalorkar 4/54). Match Drawn.

At Dharamsala - Himachal Pradesh vs Andhra, Andhra 1st innings 336 for eight declared (Murumulla Sriram 105; Vikramjeet Malik 3/78) Himachal Pradesh 1st innings 186 for seven (Rishi Dhawan 55 not out; DP Vijaykumar 3/47) Match Drawn.

At Delhi - Railways vs Jammu and Kashmir, Railways 1st innings 234 for five declared (Rohan Bhosle 54; Ram Dayal 2/50) Jammu and Kashmir 1st innings 114 all out (Anureet Singh 5/48) Railways 2nd innings 18 for no loss, Match Drawn.

At Ranchi - Jharkhand vs Hyderabad, Jharkhand 1st innings 556 for 9 declared, Hyderabad 1st innings 455 all out (Akshath Reddy 133, Ashish Reddy 104; Varun Aaron 5/131) Jharkhand 2nd innings 189 for four declared (Ishan Kishan 84; Akash Bhandari 2/46) Hyderabad 2nd innings 7 for no loss, Match Drawn.

At Pune - Maharastra vs Delhi, Maharastra 1st innings 330 all out, Delhi 1st innings 307 all out, Maharashtra 2nd innings 366 all out (Shrikant Mundhe 104; Parwinder Awana 4/68) Delhi 2nd innings 78 for three, Match Drawn.

At Agartala - Tripura vs Kerala, Tripura 1st innings 179 all out, Kerala 1st innings 301 for nine (Abhishek Hedge 82; Rana Dutta 4/45), Tripura 2nd innings 295 for nine (Bishal Ghosh 82; Amit Verma 5/61) Match Drawn.

At Ghaziabad - Uttar Pradesh vs Bengal, Bengal 1st innings 141 for four (Sudip Chatterjee 60, Wriddhiman Saha 45; Kuldeep Yadav 2/58), second and third day's play abandoned due to rain, Match Drawn.