Saurashtra defeated hosts Karnataka by three runs in a cliffhanger of a Ranji Trophy match in the Elite Group A at Mysore on Wednesday.

Requiring 265 runs for an outright victory, Karnataka were all out for 261 giving Saurashtra full five points in the last over of the day.

Fine bowling by medium pacers Sandeep Maniar (4/54) and Sandeep Jobanputra (3/74) dashed the hopes of a victory for the homeside which at one stage was tottering at 71 for four before a splendid recovery act by C Raghu (77) and Sunil Joshi (42).

With this, Saurashtra took their tally to 15 points from five matches while Karnataka had managed only nine points from the same number of matches.

The visitors who began from their overnight score of 183 for 8 carried an useful ninth wicket partnership of 74 runs in 149 balls between Firoz Bambhaniya (46) and Sandeep Jobanputra (54) which took the team into a position of comfort and safety zone of 245 runs and an over all lead of 264 runs.

They played this morning together for nearly 100 minutes.

NC Aiyappa (4/87), R Vinay Kumar (2/64), Sunil Joshi (2/45) and KP Appanna (2/36) were the wicket takers for Karnataka.

Scorecard:
Saurashtra (1st innings): 245
Karnataka (1st innings): 226
Saurashtra (2nd innings, overnight 183/8):
K Vaghela c Naidu b Vinay Kumar 34
S Jogiyani c Naidu b Vinay Kumar 7
S Kotak c Uthappa b Aiyappa 26
C Pujara b S Joshi 22
F Bambhaniya c Uthappa b Appanna 46
R Jadeja c Naidu b Aiyappa 0
J Shah c Naidu b Appanna 12
R Dhruv c Raghu b Joshi 19
K Makwana c Naidu b Aiyappa 7
S Jobanputra c Shinde b Aiyappa 54
S Maniar not out 1
Extras: (b 7, lb 5, w 5) 17
Total: (all out in 109.1 overs) 245

Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-59, 3-81 4-95, 5-110 6-116, 7-141, 8-167, 9-241, 10-245

Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 31-10-64-2, N Aiyappa 19.1-3-87-4, S Joshi 32-11-46-2, K Appanna 27-10-36-2

Karnataka (2nd innings):
K Pawan c Makvana b Jobanputra 4
R Uthappa c Jogiyani b Maniar 14
B Chipli c Jogiyani b Vaghela 28
S Shinde c Dhurv b Vaghela 21
S Joshi c Jogiyani b Jobanputra 42
C Raghu c Jogiyani b Maniar 77
R Vinay Kumar c Jadeja b Maniar 24
V Naidu run out (Shah/Jobanputra) 9
Y Goud not out 24
N Aiyappa c Jadeja b Maniar 0
K Appanna c & b Jobanputra 3
Extras: (b 2, lb 8, w 4, nb 1) 15
Total: (all out in 62.4 overs) 261

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-34, 3-64, 4-71, 5-152, 6-199, 7-218, 8-249, 9-249, 10-261

Bowling: S Jobanputra 19.4-3-74-3, S Maniar 15-2-54-4, R Jadeja 13-1-60-0, K Vaghela 6-0-23-2, R Dhurv 6-0-21-0, S Kotak 3-0-19-0