Ranji Trophy, Delhi vs Karnataka: Karnataka bundle out clueless Delhi for 90

KOLKATA: Karnataka skipper Karun Nair on Wednesday had said that his side would look to win the first session everyday and take it from there. On Thursday, he walked the talk as Karnataka bundled out Delhi for 90 runs in the opening session on Day I of their Ranji Trophy Group 'B' match at the Eden Gardens here.
Nair won the toss in his maiden outing as Karnataka skipper and chose to bowl first.Abhimanyu Mithun began proceedings in right earnest by trapping opener Unmukt Chand in front of the stumps with his fourth delivery of the day. Much was expected off Delhi skipper Gautam Gambhir for whom the Eden gardens has been like a second home because of his long association with IPL franchise KKR.
But the veteran left-hander became Sreenath Aravind's first victim when he mistimed a pull shot and was caught by Nair at wide mid-on for 2.
Aravind, who replaced the injured medium-pacer R Vinay Kumar in the line-up, wrecked Delhi by picking up three more wickets to finish with enviable figures four for 12 from 11 overs which included seven maidens.
It was a poor display by Delhi batsmen. None of them tried to settle down or build partnerships as wickets tumbled at regular intervals. Young Rishabh Pant, who made splendid 308 in the last match against Maharashtra, could not take advantage of the two 'lives' he got and fell for 24. The wicketkeeper-batsman was dropped off the first delivery he faced as Mayank Agarwal grassed the offering at second slip off Aravind. He was again dropped in Aravind's next over as Krishnappa Gowtham failed to hold on at short third man.
Off-spinner Gowtham picked up three wickets to wrap up the Delhi innings before the lunch break. This was Delhi's lowest score against Karnataka in Ranji Trophy history, beating their previous low of 138 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in 2005-06 season.
Karnataka openers Ravikumar Samarth and Agarwal duly applied themselves to the task on a pitch where the ball was not coming on to the bat. Samarth, who hit a double century in the last match against Jharkhand, timed his shots well drove fluently on both sides of the wicket to collect his runs. He pulled Ishant Sharma, making a comeback after missing the Test series against New Zealand, for a six and followed it up with a cover drive for four. Sharma, struggled to get his line right and bowled all over the place.
Karnataka went past Delhi's meagre total in the 34th over for the loss of Samarth's wicket. The opener fell for 53 off 107 balls, nicking medium-pacer Vikas Tokas to Pant behind the stumps shortly after the tea break.
RANJI TROPHY: ROUND 3, DAY 1
Group A
At Bilaspur (Himachal): Bengal 332/5 in 89 ovs (SS Mondal 135, S Chatterjee 51, Agniv Pan 70, M Tiwary 45) vs Punjab At Lahli, Rohtak: Gujarat 187 all out 55.4 ovs (Parthiv Patel 61; Deepak Bansal 6/46). Railways 63/7 in 26 ovs (Mehul Patel 4/22) At Raipur: Madhya Pradesh 239/2 in 90 ovs (A Shrivastava 87, R Patidar 83*) v Mumbai At Dharamshala: Uttar Pradesh 207/1 in 90 ovs (T Srivastava 53, Samarth Singh 115*) vs Tamil Nadu
Group B
At Thumba (Thiruvananthapuram): Vidarbha 254/3 in 90 ovs (R Sanjay 83, F Fazal 44, Ganesh Satish 93*; Swarupam Purkayastha 3/86) vs Assam At Eden Gardens, Kolkata: Delhi 90 all out in 35.5 ovs (S Aravind 4/12, Gowtham 3/26). Karnataka 131/3 in 52 ovs (R Samarth 53, Mayank Agarwal 56) At Vadorara: Jharkhand 209 in 73.5 ovs (Ishank Jaggi 49, Kaushal Singh 56; Pankaj Singh 5/60) vs Rajasthan 26/0 in 12 ovs At Vizianagaram: Saurashtra 285/3 in 90 ovs (C Pujara 79*, S Jackson 105) vs Maharashtra
Group C
At Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai: Jammu & Kashmir 205/6 in 90 ovs (S Khajuria 90, Parvez Rasool 45) vs Andhra Pradesh At Basrapara (Guwahati): Haryana 178 in 54.1ovs (R Sharma 45; Ajay Mandal 4/26) v Chhattisgarh 68/1in 24 ovs At DRIEMS Ground (Cuttack): Goa 333/2 in 90 ovs (Sumiran Amonkar 101, Shagun Kamat 177*) vs Services At Kalyani (Bengal):Tripura 305/2 in 90 ovs (Bishal Ghosh 146, Udoyan Bose 40, Smit Patel 111*) vs Himachal At KIIT stadium (Bhubaneswar): Kerala 223/4 in 90 ovs (P Prem 41, Sachin Baby 51*, Jalaj Saxena 58*) vs Hyderabad