Santosh Saxena claimed a career best six for 65 but could not stop Karnataka from winning the battle of attrition for the first innings lead against Railways in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'A' match in New Delhi on Friday.
Saxena, with the visitors needing six runs to go past Railways first innings total of 323 with only two wickets in hand, conceded four extras including a two off a wide ball and then saw a low kept delivery beat Anil Kumble's bat only to hit the fielder's helmet for a penalty of five runs.
As fate would have it, the 29-year old right arm fast bowler who began as a vegetable seller in the gullies of Mumbai went on to dismiss the two tailenders in the very next over.
But Karnataka were a relieved lot, having secured two points through some attritional batting and ended up with 336 on the third day at the Karnail Singh stadium.
At stumps, Railways were none for no loss with Amit Pagnis and Sanjay Bangar at the crease.
Karnataka gained from sensible batting by the middle order although they still needed the experience of Kumble (19) to see them past the final hurdle as they were eight down and still 16 short.
Sudhindra Shinde (82) and Stuart Binny (42) featured in a 93-run stand while wicketkeeper-batsman Thilak Naidu's 45 in the second half of the day was equally important.
Resuming at 134 for three, Karnataka almost ran away with the match as Shinde and Binny pushed the score close to 200 in the first 2-1/2 hours.
It was just before lunch when Shinde played a casual drive off left arm spinner Shankar Rao straight to mid-on, his innings lasting 250 minutes and 182 balls with 10 fours.
Binny was gone in Rao's next over, a bit unlucky to be ruled caught behind as the ball seemed to have bumped immediately after hitting the bat.
At 208 for five at lunch, Karnataka were on the precipice but Naidu pulled them out of trouble.
During his 208 minute stay at the crease, Naidu added 50 runs for the sixth wicket with B Akhil (31) and then another 36 runs for the next wicket with Sunil Joshi.
The right hander waged a grim battle but did play some of his favourite shots, particularly the swish on the front foot to fast bowlers that twice carried over the slip cordon.
But he was adept in handling the slow bowlers, his late cut off Rao to third man showing his control.
Akhil fell leg before to Saxena half an hour before tea, while Joshi (17) was brilliantly caught at point by Tejinder Pal Singh trying to cut the fast bowler.
Railways' pacemen might have been guilty of banging in too short at times but with little help from the pitch, they could be hardly blamed.
Captain Bangar finally had Naidu, out leg before in Sachin Tendulkar fashion, trying to duck a short pitched stuff only to be hit on the fore arm at stump height.
Kumble defended stoutly and Dodda Ganesh (11) held it together at the other end to deny the Railways bowlers.
Scorecard
Railways, 1st innings: 323
Karnataka, 1st innings:
B Chipli c Wankhede b Saxena 2
B Rowland c Wankhede b Saxena 6
S Somasundar b T P Singh 46
S Shinde c Ali b Shankar Rao 82
S Binny c Wankhede b Shankar Rao 42
T Naidu LBW b Bangar 45
B Akhil LBW b Saxena 31
S Joshi c T P Singh b Saxena 17
A Kumble c Wankhede b Saxena 19
D Ganesh LBW b Saxena 11
V Kumar not out 1
Extras (b-7, lb-13, nb-6, w-3, p-5) 34
Total (all out in 132 overs) 336
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-29, 3-99, 4-192, 5-193, 6-243, 7-279, 8-307, 9-333.
Bowling: Harvinder Singh 33-13-55-0, Santosh Saxena 24-5-65-6, Sanjay Bangar 24-6-52-1, Shankar Rao 36-8-86-2, Tejinder Pal Singh 1-0-8-1, Shreyas Khanolkar 12-3-34-0, Yere Goud 2-0-11-0.
Railways, 2nd innings
A Pagnis batting 0
S Bangar batting 0
Total (for no loss in 0.5 overs) 0
Bowling: Vinay Kumar 0.5-0-0-0.
