Left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai playing in his first First-Class match in almost a year wreaked havoc at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad with a seven-wicket haul. Mayank Agarwal-led Karnataka suffered a dramatic collapse chasing a target of 110 on a pitch where spinners were able to extract vicious turn and bounce.
On Day 4 of the clash, Gujarat started with an overnight score of 171/7. Umang Kumar's half-century and Gujarat skipper Chintan Gaja's crucial 23 helped his side post 219 and set a target of 110.
In the run chase, Agarwal and Devdutt Padikkal realised that they needed to score quickly. Padikkal took the more attacking approach hitting four fours and a six. In the 10th over, Desai did the damage with the wicket of the skipper. He scored 19 runs from 29 balls. In his next over, he struck twice. First Padikkal departed for a 29-ball 31. In the same over, he got rid of Nikin Jose as well.
All of a sudden, Gujarat were back in the game. Manish Pandey could not make an impact either. He fell for a nine-ball duck. Karnataka pressed the panic button after four quick wickets. In the next over, with the wicket of wicketkeeper-batter Sujay Sateri, Desai completed his fifer. On the very next over, he trapped Vijaykumar Vyshak in front of the stumps as he went for a sweep shot.
In the 19th over, right-arm off-spinner Rinkesh Vaghela joined the party. Ravikumar Samarth got stumped after scoring just four runs from four balls. The big wicket of Shubhang Hegde came in the 23rd over. Hegde departed for a 37-ball 27 which included three fours and a six. To make matters worse for Karnataka, Desai removed Rohit Kumar for a 10-ball duck.
With just one wicket in hand, Karnataka needed 18 runs to win. Vasuki Koushik and Prasidh Krishna kept Gujarat players nervous. However, Vaghela had the last laugh as Krishna got bowled. Karnataka got bowled out for 103 in 26.2 overs and lost the match by six runs.
Desai bowled 13 fours including four maidens, conceded 42 runs, and picked up seven wickets. The win helped Gujarat climb to the top of Elite Group C.
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