Karnataka pulls off a win over Gujarat

Karnataka pulled off a 15-run victory (VJD method) over Gujarat in a rain-affected game in the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day tournament at the Alur grounds near here on Monday.
At 160 for four in the 40th over, Gujarat had seemed en route to overhauling a target of 234, the fading light and the threat of rain notwithstanding.
The tide of the contest turned, however, on Axar Patel’s dismissal. The all-rounder pushed forward to the left-arm spin of J. Suchith, only to be beaten by the turn and stumped swiftly by Sadiq Kirmani. The rain came down at that point, stopping play for 26 minutes. But even as the captains fretted over par scores, the showers passed and play resumed.
Gujarat was set a revised target of 205 in 44 overs, the equation narrowing to a rather unkind 45 from four.
Vinay Kumar got rid of Jesal Karia soon after resumption before Chirag Gandhi fell to an outstanding catch at fine-leg by K.L. Rahul. With 32 needed off the final two overs, Karnataka knew the game was won.
Suchith was excellent, returning figures of two for 25 from his nine overs, while the leg-spinner Praveen Dubey, making his List A debut, claimed the important wicket of Priyank Panchal. Shreyas Gopal too struck critical blows, sending back Rujul Bhatt and Manprit Juneja in the space of three balls in the 22nd over. Karnataka now has two wins from three matches.
Earlier, Manish Pandey anchored the home side’s innings with a steady, unbeaten 94. The right-hander was disallowed two runs on the last ball of the innings for running on the pitch despite two previous warnings; further, Gujarat was awarded five penalty runs.
There could, however, be no other criticism of Pandey’s knock. The right-hander smote an early six off Rohit Dahiya but remained cautious thereafter. He stitched a 72-run partnership for the third wicket with Mayank Agarwal, who made a half-century himself. There were no other contributions of note as Karnataka, inserted in to bat after losing the toss, made 233. Elsewhere in Group B, Jharkhand secured a third win in four games with a nine-wicket drubbing of Haryana. Haryana was bowled out for a paltry 133. Jharkhand then cruised home inside 30 overs. Jammu & Kashmir, meanwhile, slumped to a seven-wicket loss at the hands of Kerala.
The scores: Karnataka 233 for eight in 50 overs (Manish Pandey 94 n.o., Mayank Agarwal 58) bt Gujarat (revised target: 205) 189 for eight in 44 overs (Priyank Panchal 52, Chirag Gandhi 43, Axar Patel 27, Smit Patel 25).
Haryana 133 in 33 overs (Rahul Dagar 38, Rahul Shukla three for 33) lost to Jharkhand 134 for one in 29.4 overs (Ishank Jaggi 62 n.o., Kumar Deobrat 38 n.o.).
Jammu & Kashmir 130 in 42.3 overs (Banded Singh 31, Zahoor Sofi 25, Fabid Ahmed three for 24) lost to Kerala 134 for three in 29.5 overs (Nikhilesh Surendran 85 n.o., Parvez Rasool three for 33).