Mumbai endures second 2019-20 Ranji Trophy loss on the trot as Karnataka secure fourth outright win in seven seasons over 41-time champions; young gun Sarfaraz Khan's gritty 71* goes in vain.
Karnataka's Devdutt Padikkal en route his 50 in the Ranji Trophy game against Mumbai at MCA-BKC yesterday
Mumbai suffered their second successive outright defeat of the season, both incidentally at home, as they were beaten by five wickets by Karnataka inside three days in their Ranji Trophy league encounter at the MCA's BKC complex ground on Sunday.
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Going into the third day 85 ahead overall after resuming their second innings at the overnight 109 for five, Mumbai needed to set a challenging target for Karnataka to chase in the fourth innings but failed to do so and the visitors completed the run chase successfully after losing five wickets in quick succession post lunch, to finish on 129 for 5.
In the morning, overnight not out Sarfaraz Khan continued to defy the Karnataka bowlers after resuming at his overnight 53 and made 71 before running out of partners as Mumbai were bowled out for 149, an hour and 22 minutes into the two and a half hour first session.
Sarfaraz showed plenty of pluck and character in his 228-minute unbeaten half century that was made in 140 balls and contained two sixes and eight fours.
Left arm pacer Prateek Jain accounted for all the four wickets lost by Mumbai today in a devastating spell of 4-0-8-4 and with the injured Prithvi Shaw having departed for Bangalore on Sunday and unable to bat, the innings was terminated.
Karnataka were sailing along nicely, facing no trouble. But post lunch, Karnataka had some anxious moments against tweakers Shashank Attarde and Shams Mulani by losing wickets in a heap before recovering poise.
Off-spinner Shashank Attarde, who took five wickets in the first innings, denied Karnataka the bonus point when he trapped lanky left-handed opener Devdutt Padikkal leg before on the back foot for a quick 46-ball 50 that contained two sixes and five fours. Attarde secured another wicket when he snapped up Abhishek Reddy through a catch in the deep while Mulani, at the other end, castled opener Ravikumar Samarth for 34 as Karnataka slumped from 78 for no loss to 91 for 3 in five overs.
But by then they were well in sight of the victory target of 126 and lost two more wickets in one over to Attarde before crossing the finish line.
The outright defeat was the fourth for Mumbai against Karnataka in seven seasons, the first one happening in 2013-14.
'100 per cent commitment only till IPL auction'
Mumbai's second outright Ranji Trophy defeat had the city's cricketing fraternity in a rage on Sunday. Kunal More, 41, the left-arm spinner-batsman, who played all his five Ranji Trophy games in the 2001-02, expressed his disappointment on Facebook and followed it up with six points/questions after Mumbai lost to Karnataka.
One of them was: "Till the IPL auction, every cricketer gives more than 100% and once the auction gets over, nobody cares about the state team. This has been observed not only by me but by many people in the cricketing fraternity," More wrote.
Shishir Hattangadi, the former Mumbai captain was quick to point out that this point was indeed "very pertinent."
Brief scores
Mumbai 194 and 149 (Sarfaraz Khan not out 71; P Jain 4-11). Karnataka 218 and 129 for 5 (D Padikkal 50; S Attarde 4 for 52)
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