Kaverappa’s spell turns the tables on Tripura

Ranji Tophy

Karnataka managed to eke out a 29-run victory over Tripura on the final day of its Ranji Trophy Group-C match at the Maharaja Bir Bikram College Stadium here on Monday.

Chasing 193, the host, starting from its overnight score of 59 for three, was bowled out for 163. The six points thus earned helped Karnataka get its campaign back on track after two below-par outings against Gujarat and Goa (three points combined).

The experienced Sudip Chatterjee, formerly of Bengal, waged a lone battle (82, 144b, 10x4), but did not receive adequate support from the likes of Ganesh Satish (22), Wriddhiman Saha (0) and Bikramjit Debnath (9).

Batting early in the morning has proved difficult all match but Chatterjee and Ganesh gave Tripura more than a glimmer of hope by adding 30 runs from the first 7.2 overs of the day.

Vidwath Kaverappa (four for 44) provided the breakthrough for the visitors, breaching Ganesh’s defence and then having Debnath caught behind by Sharath Srinivas. Sandwiched between these two dismissals was the run out of Wriddhiman Saha as Tripura slumped to 103 for six.

Fellow pacer V. Vyshak then excised Mura Singh and Parvez Sultan to leave Tripura at 133 for eight. When Kaverappa removed Rana Datta, the scoreboard read 138 for nine and there was only one plausible result.