Ranadeb Bose sends Karnataka crashing

Bengal medium pacer Ranadeb Bose had a six-wicket haul as Karnataka were bowled out for a paltry 89 runs in their first innings on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Elite group semi-final in Kolkata on Wednesday.

At close of play, Bengal were 121 for 4 in reply.

Sourav Sarkar played the perfect foil to Bose at the other end with his in-swingers, claiming the other four wickets of Karnataka, who had elected to bat after winning the toss at the Eden Gardens.

None of the Karnataka batsmen, apart from Thilak Naidu (33), and to a certain extent Vinay Kumar (23), could stand up against the Bengal attack on a good track.

Karnataka lost their opening batsmen, R Barrington (0) and Bharat Chipli (3), for just four runs and at one stage faced the ignominy of being dismissed below 50, with the scoreboard reading 6 for 24.

The two Bengal medium pacers' grip on the Karnataka batsmen was such that in the 38.5 overs that they lasted, Bose and Sarkar bowled 31.5 overs between them.

When Bengal batted they faced similar fate, losing three wickets with just 16 runs on the board.

Subhomoy Das, Abhiskhek Jhunjhunwala and Manoj Tiwary fell cheaply, but opener Arindam Das and middle-order batsman Rohan Gavaskar stemmed the rot.

Arindam was unbeaten on 45 at close, while Gavaskar scored 63 off 75 balls before being caught by Barrington off Dhananjaya.

Scorecard

Karnataka (1st innings):
 B Rowland c Dasgupta b Bose 0
 B Chipli lbw b Sarkar 3
 K Pawan c Tiwary b Bose 1
 C Raghu lbw b Bose 11
 YKT Goud c Arindam Das b Sarkar 0
 VST Naidu c Jhunjhunwala b Bose 33
 B Akhil b Sarkar 0
 R Vinay Kumar lbw b Bose 23
 SB Joshi c Tiwary b Sarkar 0
 R Bhatkal c Tiwary b Bose 9
 S Dhananjaya not out 2.
 Extras: (lb 6, nb 1) 7
 Total: 89

 Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-4, 3-6, 4-18, 5-18, 6-24, 7-76, 8-77, 9-77, 10-89.

 Bowling: R Bose 16.5-5-38-6, S Sarkar 15-8-24-4, A Dinda 4-0-13-0, L Shukla 3-1-8-0.

 Bengal (1st innings):
 S Das b Vinay Kumar 2
 Arindam Das not out 45
 A Jhunjhunwala c Bhatkal b Dhananjaya 2
 M Tiwary c Naidu b Vinay Kumar 0
 R Gavaskar c Rowland b Dhananjaya 63
 L Shukla not out 7.
 Extras: (w 1, nb 1) 2     
 Total: (for 4 wickets, 43 overs) 121

 To bat: D Dasgupta, S Lahiri, R Bose, S Sarkar, A Dinda.

 Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-15, 3-16, 4-99.

 Bowling: Vinay Kumar 13-3-36-2, S Dhananjaya 10-3-27-2, R Bhatkal 6-3-16-0, B Akhil 11-4-30-0, S Joshi 3-0-12-0.