Eight-time champions Karnataka galloped to the top of the table, inflicting a humiliating innings and 160-run defeat on a hapless Delhi team in a Group B Ranji Trophy cricket encounter at the Eden Gardens here on Saturday.
The Karun Nair-led outfit took a lead of 324 at stumps on Day Two on Friday, posting a mammoth 414 runs on the board in reply to Delhi's paltry 90 in the first innings.
The Delhi batsmen imploded once again in spectacular fashion on the third day of play on Saturday, handing their rivals all seven points from an outright win, with a day still remaining to be played.
Karnataka now have 10 points from two matches while Delhi remain on eight from two games. Karnakata next play Assam in Mumbai with Delhi locking horns with Odisha in Chandigarh.
Gautam Gambhir started Delhi's downfall, managing another lowly score of two runs off 19 balls before edging to Robin Uthappa at slip off medium pacer Abhimanyu Mithun.
Unmukt Chand (38) and Nitish Rana (28) tried to put on a fight with a 50-run stand for the third wicket.
But off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham -- who returned career best bowling figures of 5/35 in the second innings and best match haul of 8/61) -- trapped Rana in front to nip Delhi's fightback in the bud.
Rishab Pant, Milind Kumar and Manan Sharma did not contribute much, falling prey to the guile of Gowtham with Varun Sood remaining remaining out out on 41.
Wickets fell around him as Mithun (2/36), Shreyas Gopal (2/34) and Sreenath Aravind (1/23) got into the act.
The second day saw three half-centuries from Karnataka trio of Nair (53), Mir Kaunan Abbas (52) and C.M. Gautam (63 not out) adding to Mayank Agarwal and R. Samarth's fifties on Thursday as they stretched the lead past 300.
--IANS
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