da stake casino： Kerala beat Karnataka comfortably by ten wickets in their Ranji TrophySouth Zone clash at the Nehru Stadium in Kochi to complete only a secondvictory against their northern neighbours in 46 encounters in thecompetition
Sankhya Krishnan25-Nov-2000Kerala beat Karnataka comfortably by ten wickets in their Ranji TrophySouth Zone clash at the Nehru Stadium in Kochi to complete only a secondvictory against their northern neighbours in 46 encounters in thecompetition. Set a princely target of five runs in the fourth innings,Kerala’s win came in slightly bizarre fashion. Vijay Bharadwaj bowled ano-ball, which went for four byes, to finish with the unusual figures of0.0-0-1-0.Earlier Karnataka, resuming at 31/4, folded up for 133. Overnight batsmen,Bharadwaj (32) and AR Mahesh (31) waged a grim battle in the first sessionbut both were out in successive overs at the stroke of lunch to leave thevisitors at 93/6. Little resistance was offered by the tail with theexception of Dodda Ganesh who hung around for an hour and a quarter toproduce 22. The curtain came down when skipper Venkatesh Prasad knocked offspinner Ramprakash into Tinu Yohannan at cover, Karnataka labouring for79.2 overs to make 133. Left arm spinner Sreekumar Nair and leg spinner MSuresh Kumar finished with three wickets apiece.Kerala’s only other victory over Karnataka – by six wickets – came at theGovernment Victoria College Ground, Palakkad on 28-31 December 1996.CricInfo’s zealous scorer, Sudhir Aly also informs us that umpire Sanjeeva Raoofficiated in both Kerala triumphs. The result queers the pitch in the zonalstandings, lifting Kerala to 18 points from four games, ahead ofKarnataka’s 16.