Ranji trophy: Spirited Karnataka blows away Delhi on final day

A spirited team effort by Karnataka saw them defeat Delhi by a whopping 159-run margin despite conceding first innings lead in a Ranji Trophy group league encounter at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here today.

Starting the day at 40 for three, Delhi were all out for 250 in 81.5 overs with nine of the 10 wickets picked by the home team seamers.

Chasing a daunting target of 410 was never in mind of the Delhi batsmen but they aimed at batting out three session in order to get three points from the vital away match.

Save veterans Mithun Manhas who scored 80 and Rajat Bhatia who chipped in with 63, none of the other Delhi batsmen were ready to put their head down and fight it out.

The 'Old Warhorses' added 110 runs for the sixth wicket after Delhi slumped to 76 for five in the first hour.

Manhas and Bhatia batted for nearly 38 overs and it looked like they might be able to draw the match. Once Stuart Binny dismissed both Manhas and Bhatia on either side of the tea-break, the writing was there on the cards.

While skipper R Vinay Kumar had figures of three for 59, young HS Sharath got three for 40 while Binny got the most important wickets apart from scoring half centuries in both innings.

Delhi remain on 11 points from six matches and are fifth in the league table while Karnataka jumped from their last position to a notch below the visitors having played one match less. Shikhar Dhawan's men will now hope to get an outright win against Maharashtra in their next match at the Roshanara round in Delhi.

Brief Scores:

Karnataka 192 & 475.

Delhi 258 & 250 (Mithun Manhas 80, Rajat Bhatia 63, HS Sharath 3/40, R Vinay Kumar 3/59).

... contd.

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