Karnataka edged past defending champions Uttar Pradesh by two wickets in a thrilling finish on the last day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group match at Kamla Club ground in Kanpur on Tuesday.
CÂ Raghu dropped anchor at one end and pushed the side to a memorable victory. He came to the wicket when Karnataka were 15 for 2 and was dismissed for 50 with his team just two runs short of the 122-run target. His innings of 50 included six boundaries.
Resuming at their overnight score of 54 for five, Karnataka lost two early wickets to be reduced to 73 for 7.
Pacer R P Singh claimed both the scalps. Raghu then found a useful partner in B Akhil and both pulled their side out of danger.
In a bid to finish the match in style, Raghu threw away his wicket, but Vinay Kumar and Akhil took the side home.
After this win, Karnataka earned 4 points to be at 8 points from three matches. They will now clash with Delhi in their next match.
On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh did not earn any points from this match and have only two from three encounters.
Karnataka captain Yere Goud said it was a "grand victory."
"The team combined well and played like a unit."
His counterpart Mohd Kaif said "it was a close match. Had we scored more runs in the first or second innings, the result would have been different."
Scorecard
Uttar Pradesh 1st innings 264
Karnataka 1st innings 337
Uttar Pradesh 2nd innings 194
Karnataka 2nd innings (target 122)
B Rowland b Srivastava 7
R Uthappa c Ravikant b Srivastava 5
B Chipli c Singh b Kumar 3
C Raghu c Kumar b Singh 50
Y Goud b Kumar 1
T Naidu b Singh 11
S Binny c Srivastava b Singh 4
S Joshi lbw b Singh 4
B Akhil not out 16
R Vinay Kumar not out 5
Extras (b 3, lb 5, nb 11) 19
Total (8 wickets; 39.5 overs) 125
Fall of wickets: 1-11 , 2-15, 3-23 , 4-24 , 5-54 , 6-58 7-73, 8-120
Bowling: Srivastava 13.5 2 36 2, Kumar 12 3 29 2, Piyush Chawla 3 0 12 0, RP Singh 9 0 30 4, M Kaif 2 0 10 0
