Can Namma boys pull off a miracle against Railways?

Manjunath Hadimani | NT

Karnataka started their second innings during the fag end of day 3adding 63/1 on the board; ending the day with the lead of 118. Bowling out Railways for 426, Karnataka gained the important first-innings lead of 55 in their Ranji Trophy opener.

Mayank Agarwal looked dashingfor his 39* ( 53b) scoring five boundaries and a six. Samarth is at the other end with 20* (41b). They steadied the ship adding 52 runs between them after the fall of Devdutt Padikkal early in the innings where he was bowled around his legs by Amit Mishra for 4.

Earlier in the day, Railways resumed on 213/3. Continuing from where he left on day 2 Arindam Ghosh 105 (197b, 4×12, 6×3) went on to complete his ton. Mohammed Saif 84 (148b, 4×11, 6×1) fell 16 runs short of his hundred becoming the fourth prey to Gowtham. Apart from Yuvraj Singh 48 (68b, 4×7, 6×1), Railways lowermiddle order didn’t stay long atthe crease, which could have let them gopast Namma team’s score.

K Gowtham added one wicket to his previous day’s tally making it 4/27 in 41 overs with a mere economy of 0 .7. Ronit More the experienced campaigner among Karnataka pacers walked away with 3/67.

With just one day’s play left, the match looks like it will end up in a d raw. Even if Karnataka add 150 odd runs before lunch and declare. It would be highly unlikely that they end up picking all the Railways wickets with the pitch still looking good for batters.