Aravind Sreenath and Vinay Kumar's incisive spells today helped Karnataka pull off a stunning 285-run win over arch-rivals Tamil Nadu in what turned out to be a thrilling Ranji Trophy A Group encounter here.
Sreenath had a very good run in the match by hauling eight wickets after conceding 61 runs in two innings. The second innings figure of 4/9 stood out as the best in the whole match. In the first innings too, he had picked up four wickets, giving away 52 runs
Sent into bat, Tamil Nadu bowled out Karnataka for 290 in the first innings, with Kunal Kapoor (87) and Chidambaram Gautam (94), bringing back the hosts after suffering early blows on the first day of the match.
In reply, Tamil Nadu folded up at 274 owing to some superlative bowling by right-arm medium pacer Sreenath, helping the home team grab a vital 16-run lead.
The hosts, riding high on superb knocks coming from the blades of Robin Uthappa (76) and Mayank Agarwal (80), and a strokeful 77 by Stuart Binny in the first session of the final day, helped the hosts set a herculean target.
Chasing 368 on the fourth and final day, Tamil Nadu batsmen did not have an answer for quality bowling from Sreenath and Vinay, who rattled the visitors using the morning conditions to their advantage by scalping four wickets before lunch was taken.
The hosts now have six points with this magnificent win.
Starting from an overnight 247 for four, Karnataka declared at 351 for five with Stuart Binny getting a quickfire 77 off 68 balls with six boundaries and four entertaining sixes to set up an imposing target for visitors.
Giving him company was Manish Pandey, who scored a useful unbeaten 56 with six boundaries and a six.
Tamil Nadu had a very bad start with both the openers -- Kaushik Gandhi (1) and Abhinav Mukund (16) -- were picked up by Vinay and Sreenath --, giving the right start for the hosts to make inroards.
Shreyas Gopal did the trick for the hosts as he removed Dinesh Karthik (1) and Baba Aparajith for 13, leaving the visitors tottering at 32 for four before lunch.
From 34 for four, Tamil Nadu were bowled out for 82 runs with, Vinay and Sreenath coming to the party. They bagged the wickets of B Indrajith (12), Ramaswamy Prasanna (15), Vijay Shankar (8), Molalan Rangarajan (10), Laxmipathy Balaji (0) and M Mohammed (0), in quick succession.
