Highlights of Karnataka/Orissa Ranji Trophy match at Bangalore : 24^th to 27^th November 2010; Karnataka won by an innings and 33 runs

This article is penned by Sri C Keshavamurthy

In the absence of regular captain R Vinaykumar donning the duties in the One Day International series against New Zealand, Ganesh Satish led Karnataka in the match against Orissa at Bangalore, He became the 46^th captain to lead Karnataka in Ranji Trophy.

He became the third Karnataka captain to lead against Orissa. The other two are – GR Viswanath at Bangalore in 1984/85 and A Kumble at Rourkela in 1997/98.

Ganesh Satish celebrated his captaincy assignment by winning the match comfortably. He became the 21^st Karnataka captain to win a match on his first captaincy assignment. R Vinaykumar had earlier performed a similar feat in the inaugural match of this season against Punjab at Mohali in November 2010. Ganesh Satish thus brought in a hat trick of wins against Orissa as Karnatka had won both the matches – the first ever in 1984/85 and the last in 1997/98. Ganesh Satish led Karnataka in his 13^th Ranji Trophy. He had made his debut against Railways at Bangalore in 2008/09.

Ganesh Satish earned the distinction of becoming the youngest Karnataka captain at the age of 22 years 8 months and 9 days. The earlier record was held by TD Krishna – having led against Hyderabad at Hyderabad in 1954/55 at the age of 23 years and 20 days.

Shiv Sundar Das was leading Orissa for the second time against Karnataka. He was captain of Orissa in 1997/98 at Rourkela also. He has lost both the matches as captain.

Aditya B Sagar became the 267^th Karnataka cricketer to make debut in Ranji Trophy and only the second Karnataka player to do so against Orissa. AK Raghu was the first Karnataka player to have debuted against Orissa at Bangalore in 1984/85.

Born at Hubli on 21.10.1988, Sagar turned in an impressive performance when he captured a wicket in his very first over in his debut game. He coaxed the Orissa opener N Behera to nick an edge to Uthappa in the last ball of his opening over. As if this was no fluke, he repeated this feat in the Orissa’s second innings also when he clean bowled Orissa captain Shiv Sundar Das – again of the last ball of his first over. This is only the second instance of a bowler capturing a wicket in each innings of his first over on debut in the history of Ranji Trophy matches pertaining to Karnataka. Only KS Ponnappa had performed the feat of taking a wicket in both the innings of a match on debut prior to Sagar’s feat (1/02 in 0.5 overs and 1/0 in 0.3 overs, against Andhra at Kurnool in 2001/02). (Additions to this list are welcome from the readers).

Shiv Sundar Das who should have led from the front as Orissa skipper, had a miserable time at the crease in both the innings – bagging a pair. Das faced just seven balls in the first innings and two balls in the second innings. He is the second Orissa batsman to be dismissed for a pair – the first being Gautam Gopal at Rourkela in 1997/98.

Shiv Sundar Das is the 60^th batsman to collect a pair against Karnataka. His dismissal for a pair in this match provides the Tthe 62^nd occasion of a batsman collecting a pair againt Karnataka. Ravi Achan and Mohd Ibrahim of Kerala are the only players to have bagged a Pair on two occasions against Karnataka.

Shiv Sundar Das, with a pair in this game, became the sixth captain to bag a Pair against Karnataka. Other captains who have bagged a Pair against Karnataka – A Babu of Kerala at Banglaore in 1963-64 : MN Ravikumar of Andhra at Bangalore in 1984-85 : S Mahadevan of Goa at Panaji in 1992-93 : SLV Raju of Hyderabad at Bijapur in 1994-95 : FV Rashid of Kerala at Telassery in 1994-95 and SS Das of Orissa at Bangalore in 2010-11

Dhiraj Singh became the first Orissa bowler to concede over 100 runs without taking a wicket against Karnataka, when he conceded 123 runs in 24 overs.

N Behera became the first Orissa batsman to be dismissed for a score in the 90s against Karnataka – to be exact 94 in the second innings. He became the 39^th opposition player to be dismissed in the 90s. He is also the third opposition player to be dismissed on the score of 94 – the two others being GSN Raju of Andhra in 1956/57 and U Kaul of Punjab in 2010/11.

For N Behera this was the third occasion to have been stranded in the 90s. He had earlier made 97 against Jammu & Kashmir at Cuttack in 2006/07 and 95 against Tamilnadu at Sambalpur in 2009/10.

N Behera, who fought almost single handedly to help Orissa reach a modest score in the first innings, scored fifties in each innings. By scoring 83* and 94, Niranjan Behera provided the seventh instance of a batsman scoring a twin half centuries {of which one is a ninety} against Karnataka. Behera is the first Orissa player to perform such a feat. The following are the seven occasions – 55 and 91 by AG Ramsingh of Madras at Madras in 1939-40 : 66 and 94 by GSN Raju of Andhra at Guntur in 1956-57 : 89 and 95 by RD Parkar of Bombay at Bombay in 1971-72 : 69 and 92 of Madras at Madras in 1972-73 : 56 and 93 by D Vinay Kumar of Hyderabad at Secunderabad in 1999-00 : 64 and 90 by Khanolkar of Railways at Delhi in 2000-01 and 83 not out and 94 by N Behera of Orissa at Bangalore in 2010/11.

Niranjan Behera has now scored 22 fifty plus scores inclusive of one century in 48 Ranji Trophy matches.

Nataraj Behea scored 60 in the second innings. This was his third fifty plus scores including one century in just four Ranji Trophy matches.

CM Gautam recorded his highest individual score of 158 surpassing the previous identical scores of 108 against Maharashtra at Bangalore in 2008/09 and 108* against Bengal at Mysore in 2009/10. He was appearing in his 14^th Ranji Trophy. 158 by Gautam was his fourth century and his first fifty plus score in 2010/11.

158 by Gautam is his third century as wicket keeper and the 25^th century by a Karnataka wicket keeper. SMH Kirmani and VS Thilaknaidu jointly share the record for most number of centuries (five each) by a Karnataka wicket keeper.

Manish Pandey made 171, bringing up his fifth century in 17 Ranji Trophy matches and this was his first century in 2010/11 going ahead of the highest score of 55 in the last match against Haryana in November 2010. His best remains at 194 against UP at Meerut in 2009/10.

Abhimanyu Mithun scored a maiden fifty (63 of 89 balls) in his 12^th Ranji Trophy match. His previous best was 39 against Delhi at Delhi in 2009/10.

Sunil Joshi scored zero in this game. This was his 1
1^th duck in 112 matches. Only R Ananth and BS Chandrasekhar have scored more ducks (14 each) for Karnataka in Ranji Trophy.

Sunil Joshi proved that age does not matter as long as one performs, by taking 5-35 in 22 overs. Strangely he had failed to achieve this feat against Orissa earlier having played only one match against Orissa in 1997/98. 5-22 against Orissa by Joshi is his best against this team improving upon his previous best of 3/36 at Rourkela in 1997/98.

5-22 by Joshi was his 26^th five wicket haul in his 112^th match, besides five occasions of 10WM or more in a match. Joshi has now a tally of 467 wickets.

The Orissa openers N Behera and skipper SS Das scored ducks in the first innings providing the fifth occasion of both the openers from the opponent team scoring ducks. The five instances are as under – PS Moses and AR Shenoy of Kerala at Bangalore in 1963-64 : B Ramprasad and T Sridhar of Andhra at Vijayawada in 1967-68 : S Suresh and AR Kapoor of Tamilnadu vs Bangalore in 1999-00 : SO Sharma and Sunny Singh of Haryana at Mysore in 2006/07 and N Behera and SS Das of Orissa at Banglaore in 2010/11

Orissa batsmen accounted for five ducks in the first innings. This provided the ninth occasion of five or more opposing batsmen scoring ducks in an innings. The last such occasion was by Uttar Pradesh at Bangalore in 2009/10. The following are the nine such instances – Six ducks by Kerala batsmen at Banglaore in 1963-64 : six ducks by Kerala batsmen at Bijapur in 1969-70 : five ducks by Kerala batsmen at Banglaore in 1965-66 : five ducks by Punjab batsmen at Bangalore in 1981-82 : five ducks by Baroda batsmen at Baroda in 1982-83 : five ducks by Goa batsmen at Bhadravathi in 1985-86 : five ducks by Bombay batsmen at Bangalore in 1993-94 : five ducks by Uttar Pradesh batsmen at Bangalore in 2009-10 and five ducks by Orissa batsmen at Bangalore in 2010-11

MK Pandey and CM Gautam who saved Karnataka when it was tottering at 5/54 and were instrumental in carving out victory in the end, were involved in a record breaking partnership for the sixth wicket. They added 328 runs for the sixth wicket breaking the previous record of 238 runs held by KA Jeshwant and RS Dravid against Maharashtra at Pune in 1990/91. This is the fourth century partnership of over 300 runs and the third best for Karnataka in Ranji Trophy. The list of 300 or more runs partnerships for Karnataka in Ranji Trophy reads as under – 451* runs for the first wicket between RMH Binny and Sanjay Desai at Chickmagalur in 1977-78 : 336 runs for the fifth wicket between SMH Kirmani and K Jeswanth vs Tamilnadu at Coimbatore in 1990-91 : 328 runs for the sixth wicket between MK Pandey and CM Gautam vs Orissa at Bangalore in 2010-11 amd 324 runs for the first wicket between RV Uthappa and RL Barrington vs Madhya Pradesh at Bangalore in 2004-05

Orissa recorded its highest innings total against Karnataka by scoring 279 in the second iinnings. Its previous best was 276 at Bangalore in its first encounter against Karnataka in 1984/85.

Karnataka recorded a score of 503 – its first 500 plus score this season. 503 by Karnataka is the 32^nd occasion when Karnataka has scored over 500 runs in an innings. However, this is the first time that Karnataka has crossed this figure against Orissa. The previous highest total against Orissa was 473+16 at Bangalore in 1984/85.

Karnataka tasted innings victory for the first time against Orissa and for the 63^rd time in all in 360 matches. Just for the record, Kerala has been at the receiving end most times against Karnataka, having suffered 22 innings defeats.

Karnataka’s victory against Orissa at Bangalore is 163^rd win for Karnataka. Playing Record after the match against Orissa on 27.11.2010:

Karnataka; Played-360, Won-163, Lost-56, Drawn-141 (including NR) and Orissa Played-238, Won-54, Lost-84, Drawn-100 (including NR)