Rest of India dished out another round of spineless batting and capitulated for 183 to lose the Irani Cup match to Ranji Trophy champions Karnataka by an innings 222 runs here Wednesday.
Resuming the day at 114 for three, Rest of India offered tepid resistance against rookie leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal picked up four wickets, including a hat-trick for a match haul of 5 for 35. Karnataka skipper and seamer Vinay Kumar came away with 4 for 70 that gave him match figures of 10 for 117.
Barring Baba Aparajith, who made 66 (162b, 8×4), the other Rest of India batsmen fell in a heap as Gopal and Vinay Kumar sliced through the line-up.
Vinay Kumar started the rout when he dismissed Dinesh Karthik (27) and Mandeep Singh (2) in the space of three deliveries as Rest of India slipped to 142 for five. The exit of Amit Mishra who was run out by Gopal’s direct hit while attempting a non-existent single, all but signalled the end of Rest of India’s challenge.
Gopal then picked up the remaining four wickets with the batsmen either unable to read the googly or just throwing away their wickets, like skipper Harbhajan Singh and Aparajith did and holed out in the deep.
Gopal, after removing Aparajith, clean bowled Ashok Dinda and Pankaj Singh with the googly to close out the match as Karnataka claimed the Irani Cup for the fifth time in seven attempts.
Scoreboard:
Rest of India (1st innings): 201
Karnataka (1st innings): 606
Rest of India (2nd innings): Overnight 114 for 3: Jiwanjot Singh lbw Vinay 7 (18b, 1×4); Gautam Gambhir c Pandey b Vinay 9 (8b, 2×4); Baba Aparajith c Binny b Gopal 66 (162b, 8×4); Kedar Jadhav c Pandey b Gopal 44 (65b, 7×4); Dinesh Karthik b Vinay Kumar 27 (61b, 3×4); Mandeep Singh lbw Vinay 2 (3b); Amit Mishra (run out) 5 (5b, 1×4); Harbhajan Singh c Vinay b Gopal 8 (12b, 1×4); Anureet Singh (not out) 7 (11b, 1×4); Ashoke Dinda b Gopal 0 (1b); Pankaj Singh b Gopal 0 (1b). Extras (b-6, lb-2): 8. Total (all out, 57.5 overs): 183.
Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Gambhir, 2.5); 2-20 (Jiwanjot, 6.2); 3-91 (Jadhav, 27.2); 4-140 (Karthik, 46.3); 5-142 (Mandeep, 46.6); 6-151 (Mishra, 49.2); 7-162 (Harbhajan, 53.5); 8-183 (Aparajith 57.3); 9-183 (Dinda, 57.4); 10-183 (Pankaj, 57.5).
Bowling: Vinay Kumar 16-1-70-4; Abhimanyu Mithun 16-3-41-0; H.S. Sharath 8-5-11-0; Stuart Binny 6-1-13-0; Shreyas Gopal 9.5-0-35-5; Robin Uthappa 1-0-1-0; Karun Nair 1-0-4-0.
