Ranji Trophy: Karnataka humiliate Delhi with big win

Gautam Gambhir failed once again on a bowler friendly pitch as Karnataka humiliated Delhi by scripting an innings and 160-run win inside two and half days in the Ranji Trophy group league encounter, here on Saturday.

It was off-spinner K. Gowtham, who grabbed a career-best 5/35 and finished with a match haul of 8/61 to return with the man of the match award.

Starting their second innings with a huge deficit of 324, Delhi, who were shot out for 90 in the first innings, fared a share better than their previous essay as they folded for 164, just 50 minutes post lunch, to concede the match with more than one day and a session to spare.

Presence of Gautam Gambhir failed to inspire Delhi. The left-handed opener managed identical scores of two in both innings. He edged one to Robin Uthappa in the slips off Abhimanyu Mithun exposing his technical problems on a pitch where there was some movement on offer.

The bonus-point win temporarily took Karnataka to the top of group B table with 10 points, ahead of Delhi on eight points. Scoreboard Delhi (Ist innings): 90 Karnataka (Ist innings): 414 Delhi (2nd innings): U. Chand c Nair b Gowtham 38, G. Gambhir c Uthappa b Mithun 2, D. Shorey b Mithun 0, N. Rana lbw b Gowtham 28, R. Pant c Nair b Gowtham 9, Milind Kumar c Samarth b Gowtham 0, Manan Sharma c Uthappa b Gowtham 0, Varun Sood (not out) 41, V. Tokas c Kaunain Abbas b Gopal 17, I. Sharma c & b Gopal 11, P. Suyal b Aravind 5. Extras: (b8, lb 3, w 1, nb 1) 13. Total: (in 43 overs; 203 mins) 164 FoW: 1-11, 2-11, 3-61, 4-71, 5-75, 6-75, 7-94, 8-127, 9-143, 10-164 Bowling: A Mithun 9-1-36-2, S Aravind 9-2-23-1, S Binny 10-4-25-0, K Gowtham 9-1-35-5, S Gopal 6-0-34-2.