Bhubaneswar: Karnataka batsmen continued to struggle as Orissa tightened their grip over their Ranji Trophy Group B match and would look to force a win on the final day of the contest at the Palam Ground in New Delhi, Wednesday.
Orissa added 36 more runs to their overnight total with last-wicket pair to be all out for 342 and took a significant 163-run first innings lead. Karnataka’s second innings was better than the first but it was not enough to make it a contest as they ended the third day at 244 for six. They effectively have 81 runs on the board with only four wickets in hand.
Orissa will certainly look to wipe off the lower-order and fancy a win to get full points. Left-arm spinner Dhiraj Singh (3/54) rattled the Karnataka top and middle order with his three-wicket burst while Basant Mohanty, Biplab Samantray and Govinda Poddar chipped in with one wicket each.
Wicket-keeper batsman Chidambaran Gautam (68 n o, 180b, 3×4, 1×6) was waging a battle for Karnataka. Ravikumar Samrath (49), Robin Uthappa (32) and Stuart Binny (32) got starts but were guilty of not converting those into big knocks.
Brief scores
Karnataka 179 and 244/6 (CM Gautam 68 batting, Ravikumar Samarth 49; Dhiraj Singh 3-54); Orissa 342 (Basant Mohanty 40).
Other Group-B matches
(At Chennai): Maharashtra 542; Assam 256 (Rishav Das 86, Arun Karthik 47; Anupam Sanklecha 8-73) and 115/6 (Anupam Sanklecha 3-37).
(At Wayanad): Rajasthan 238 and 221 (Rajesh Bishnoi 89; Pradeep Sangwan 3-31); Delhi 307 and 51/3.
(At Delhi): Saurashtra 301 and 92/2 (Snell Patel 60 batting); Vidarbha 347 (Jitesh Sharma 49; Vandit Jivrajani 4-93).
All matches to continue, Thursday.
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