Debutant grabs opportunity, plays gem of an innings

After stars like Mayank Agarwal,  Devdutt Padikkal, Krishnappa  Gowtham, and Prasidh Krishna  were called for India duties. The onus  was on the debutants to perform and  make their presence felt. It was expected  Manish Pandey and Karun Nair to fire  but they failed to perform in a quarterfinal against Saurashtra. After the fall  of early wickets as Karnataka were in  deep trouble at 34/3, it was left to the  partnership of Rohan Kadam and Abhinav Manohar to put the innings back on  track. There was a slew of late wickets  and that meant the match went to the  final over, but Manohar kept his composure to finish it off. He never looked  flustered and showed the experience of  a veteran out in the middle with bat in  hand. Sensational debut but essentially  he helped his side over the line and how!  Though Saurashtra skipper Jaydev Unadkat (4/22) returned to add two wickets  in his fourth over and Kushang Patel  scalped one, Manohar was not to be denied his moment of glory. Saurashtra  battled hard with what they had but  Manohar’s knock was the difference in  the end. Electing to bat first, Saurashtra  were restricted to 145/7 with Sheldon  Jackson scoring 50 in just 43 balls.

Arpit Vasavada (26) and Prerak  Mankad (23) also chipped with in useful  contributions. K C Cariappa, V Vyashak  and Koushik V took two wickets each.

Karnataka chased down the target  with a ball to spare. Abhinav Manohar  scored an unbeaten 70 in 49 balls with two  fours and six sixes.

Contributions by Rohan Kadam (33)  and Aniruddha Joshi (13) also played a  role in the team’s win

Brief Score:

Saurashtra 145/7 (Sheldon  Jackson 50, Arpit Vasavada 26;  V Vyashak 2/19) lost to Karnataka 150/8 (Abhinav  Manohar 70 not out, Jaydev  Unadkat 4/22) by two wickets Next quarterfi nal on Thursday:  Karnataka to face Bengal