Murali Kartik puts Railways on top
Railways made ample amends for their lacklustre showing with the bat, skittling out Baroda
for 169 in their first innings on the second day of the Ranji
Trophy final in Delhi on Thursday.
Railways, who had made 253 in their first essay after
electing to bat, were 37 for one at close of play. That gave them an overall lead of 121 oveer the defending champions.
At draw of stumps, Amit Pagnis was batting on 24 while Tejinderpal Singh kept him company on 3.
The day belonged to Railways left-arm spinner Murali
Kartik, who notched his fourth five-wicket haul of the
season and helped his team defend a modest total with
aplomb.
Ably supported by seamer Jayprakash Yadav from the other
end, Kartik foxed the Baroda batsmen with his shrewd bowling
tactics and scalped the important wickets of Connor Williams
(24), Satyajit Parab (53), Nayan Mongia (32), Tushar Arothe
(2) and Atul Bedade (2).
Seamers Harvinder Singh and Yadav then got rid of the rest
of the batsmen, sharing five wickets between them. Yadav, especially, impressed with his economical figures of 28-13-31-2.
The lone bright spot for the visitors was Parab,
who hit eight fours in his 78-ball 53, as the rest of the
Baroda batsmen gifted away their wickets with reckless batting.
Earlier, Baroda resumed at their overnight score of 17 for no loss,
with opener Parab displaying fine form. Parab, who hit seamer
Zakir Hussain for three fours in the bowler's second over of
the day, raced to his 50 with the help of eight fours off
71 balls.
However, Parab's knock was cut short when Karthik had the
aggressive batsman caught by Shreyas Khanolkar in the covers
for 53, when the total read 80.
Williams looked ill at ease right from the start and it
took him half-an-hour to move from his overnight score of 12.
He slowly opened up and hit three fours but before he
could settle down he succumbed to a Kartik delivery and was
clean bowled in spectacular fashion with the total on 87.
Baroda took lunch at 110 for two with Mongia batting on
16 with Martin on 11.
Mongia tried to put up a semblance of resistance after five
of the top order batsmen were cooling their heels in the
pavilion and hit a patient 32 (142 m, 91b) before he was
caught brilliantly by Shreyas Khanolkar at mid-off off Kartik
with the score reading 138.
Mongia's departure sounded the death knell for Baroda as
Ajit Bhoite (17), Yousuf Pathan (7), Valmik Buch (0) and
Shekhar Joshi (1) followed one another to the pavilion.
Rakesh Patel remained unbeaten on eight as the Baroda innings
folded even much below the 200-run mark one hour into the
final session.
With the cushion of first innings lead behind them,
Railways' openers J P Yadav and Amit Pagnis started
tentatively in their second innings.
Mail Cricket Editor
