The pace bowlers made a massive impact on Day 2 of the Bengal-Karnataka Ranji Trophy game played at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Initially, the ever-reliable Vasuki Koushik bagged a five-wicket haul for Karnataka. Rishav Vivek, Ishan Porel and Suraj Jaiswal then shared the spoils to dent the home side. On the back of a timely, unbeaten stand between Abhinav Manohar and Shreyas Gopal, Karnataka recovered to some extent to end the day’s play at 155 for 5, in arrears by 146 runs.
Just like day 1, Koushik provided Karnataka the perfect start by removing Shahbaz Ahmed, with Sujay Sateri pouching the catch behind the stumps. Koushik also took the scalp of Porel to complete his five-for. The hallmark of Koushik’s bowling has always been his control. With the track offering a hint of seam movement and generally staying on the lower side, Koushik pitched most of the deliveries on a good length spot and extracted nifty movement to trouble all the batters.
Gopal, who mixed up his pace quite well and imparted some drift, took a three-for while the debutant Abhilash Shetty plucked two. It was an impressive effort from Karnataka considering the fact that they were without Vidwath Kaverappa (shin injury) and Vijaykumar Vyshak (selected for the T20I series versus South Africa).
Karnataka’s injury woes didn’t end there. Nikin Jose, who suffered a cut on his forehead while fielding on day 1, was replaced by Kishan Bedare as concussion sub. Hardik Raj also went back to the pavilion after taking a tumble while fielding.
Bedare, who opened the batting with Mayank Agarwal, looked in decent touch, even essaying a few cut shots off Porel, before falling to the same bowler. The tall Porel also caused some problems for Agarwal, the Karnataka skipper. In fact, one of the highlights of the day’s play was the battle between the two. There was something else to notice – Agarwal’s routines at the crease. After every few deliveries, he would walk towards the square-leg umpire, then touch his helmet grille and adjust his thigh pad before facing the next ball.
Unfortunately for Karnataka, his patient vigil was cut short by Jaiswal. Meanwhile, Rishav bowled with a decent burst of pace and removed both Manish Pandey and R Smaran. At that juncture, Abhinav Manohar and Gopal joined forces to stitch a crucial stand of 92. Manohar, who made his first-class debut in the previous game, was at his aggressive best, cracking six fours and a six. In the last over of the day, he also took a single to complete his maiden first-class fifty.
The Karnataka camp would hope for the pair to carry on the good work on day 3. At the other end, Bengal would believe if they break the Gopal-Manohar stand in the first few overs of the day’s play, they have the opportunity to run through the lower order and gain a sizeable lead.
Brief scores: Bengal 301 (Anustup Majumdar 101; Vasuki Koushik 5-38) lead Karnataka 155 for 5 (Abhinav Manohar 50*; Rishav Vivek 2-44) by 146 runs.