da wazamba： Wills XI failed to consolidate on an excellent start given by theiropeners Gagan Khoda and Ashu Dani and went down by two wickets toKarnataka in their Wills Trophy quarterfinal match at the Lal Bahadurstadium in Hyderabad on Tuesday
11-Jan-2000Wills XI failed to consolidate on an excellent start given by theiropeners Gagan Khoda and Ashu Dani and went down by two wickets toKarnataka in their Wills Trophy quarterfinal match at the Lal Bahadurstadium in Hyderabad on Tuesday.Put in to bat, Wills XI could not have asked for a better start.Khoda and Dani put on 135 runs off 30.3 overs. Dani was the first togo when he was run out for 65. He faced 101 balls and hit seven foursand a six. Khoda was bowled by Johnson in the next over for 55. Hefaced 90 balls and hit five of them to the ropes. In the followingover, Virendra Shewag was out to Dodda Ganesh for one and in the spaceof 12 deliveries, Wills XI had slumped to 142 for three.Wills XI never really recovered from the collapse. Skipper Ajay Jadejamade only 14 and it was left to PN Mullick to keep the innings goingwith a valuable 33 off 45 balls. The scoring rate slumped and wicketsfell at regular intervals and Wills XI were dismissed for 215 in 49overs. The three pronged pace attack of Ganesh (2 for 38), Johnson (3for 42) and Mansur Ali Khan (2 for 18) did all the damage, with threerun outs playing their part in the collapse. In fact, Wills XI afterthe opening stand lost ten wickets for just 80 runs off 18.3 overs.The Wills XI bowlers however tried their best to get their side backinto the match. Mithun Beerala and skipper Sujith Somasundar weredismissed with only 19 runs on the board. But a third wicketpartnership of 58 runs off 16 overs between J Arun Kumar (41) and VSTNaidu (71) put Karnataka back on track. The in form Arun Kumar faced63 balls and hit six fours before he was run out. B Akhil was out at84 but a fifth wicket partnership of 56 runs from 13.2 overs betweenNaidu and S Shiraguppi (33) revived Karnataka’s hopes. Shiraguppi whofaced 41 balls and hit two fours and a six, played a vitalknock. Naidu soldiered on until he was seventh out at 185. Continuinghis good form this season, Naidu faced 109 balls and hit fivefours. Ganesh was eighth out at 209 and this led to someexcitement. But Johnson and Anand Katti saw Karnataka home with twoovers and two wickets to spare.