Watch: Siddharth Desai‘s seven-for helped Gujarat defend a low total of 109 against Karnataka in a Ranji Trophy thriller at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad today (January 15).

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Gujarat came from behind in the match to script a memorable victory against the domestic powerhouse Karnataka at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Karnataka elected to field first after winning the toss and restricted the hosts to 264 on day one. Kshitij Patel (95) and Umang Kumar (72) top scored for Gujarat while the wickets were shared between Vasuki Kaushik (four), Prasidh Krishna, Vijaykumar Vyshak, and Rohit Kumar (two each).

Karnataka responded with a big first innings score of 374, taking a lead of 110 runs. Skipper Mayank Agarwal led the way with a 124-ball 109 and was ably supported by the senior-pro Manish Pandey, who scored 88 at No.5. Chintan Gaja was the pick of the bowlers for Gujarat, taking 3-65.

With just over five sessions left in the game, Gujarat needed to get a big third-innings score to overcome the deficit and challenge the visitors. When their top-order collapsed to 52-4, the game looked like it was slipping out of their hands. Manan Hingrajia and Umang Patel scored fifties as the hosts somehow struggled their way past the 110-run deficit and finished at 219.

With just 110 runs to chase in nearly 80 overs, Karnataka had a seemingly easy task at their hands. Agarwal and Devdutt Padikkal came out all guns blazing, looking to finish off the chase quickly. The opening pair added 50 for the first wicket in just 9.1 overs before Agarwal was dismissed by left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai.

Desai then removed Padikkal and Nikin Jose in a double-wicket over to reduce Karnataka to 56-3. Shubhang Hegde, batting at No.4, tried to keep the attack going from one end but kept running out of partners, courtesy the brilliance of Desai.

On a day four surface that was turning and bouncing, Desai ran through the cream of the Karnataka batting line up to take seven wickets. His seventh victim was Rohit Kumar who fell at the team score of 92.

Karnataka required another 18 runs for victory with the last pair of Krishna and Koushik at the crease. They added 11 runs before Krishna was bowled by Vaghela to setup a memorable victory for Gujarat. Karnataka, who had been ahead in the game till the first session of the last day, lost the game by six runs, collapsing from 50-0 to 103 all out.

Watch Siddharth Desai’s seven wickets against Karnataka here:

Related tags:

Karnataka Manish PandeyMayank AgarwalRanji TrophyRanji Trophy 2023/24Series Editorial