Powar takes five wickets as Karnataka totter at 189 for 9

MUMBAI: Ramesh Powar made a quite and quick exit after stumps on Day One. On the field he made a statement right through the day.

Traditionally, the Wankhede wicket provides of good competition between the bat and the ball right up to the last hour of play of the fourth day.

But for the Ranji opener between Mumbai and Karnataka it is behaving a bit differently.
Powar ended with figures of 5 for 69, including the priced scalp of Rahul Dravid that triggered a spontaneous celebration from the off-spinner.

Karnataka won the toss and elected to bat and while Dravid played a solid cameo it was Powar who shone brightly on a wicket that was slower than the traditional Wankhede strip and took a bit of spin early on the first day.

With Anil Kumble and left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi in the opposition ranks, for Mumbai, batting last on the wicket that is expected subscribe to lots of spin over the next three days will be a Herculean task.

At stumps Karnataka were 189 for nine with all-rounder B Akhil Kumar batting on 53. Another 20 to 30 runs before folding up, Karnataka wicket-keeper Thilak Naidu believes, will be a good first innings total of the wicket.

Amol Muzumdar’s team can’t afford to take this assessment lightly. Dravid took his time to get the runs, Chandrashekar Raghu, took 138 balls to hit 31 runs. Naidu hit 33 off just 93.

The strike rate points to some fine bowling from Mumbai as well as the slow nature of the pitch.

Good batsmen were made to earn their runs on Saturday and while Wasim Jaffer and Amol Muzumdar have the pedigree and some of the young Mumbai batsmen have shown talent, they have a tough task ahead. 

As impressive as Powar was Ajit Agarkar’s early spell of eight overs that cost just nine runs and returned two wickets.

Rajesh Verma, Agarkar’s new-ball partner tried hard and bowled well, but had only one wicket to show.

Scorecard

Karnataka (1st innings): B Rowland c Samant b Agarkar 0, K Pawan c Rahane b Agarkar 11, R Dravid c Muzumdar b Powar 40, C Raghu c Samant b Nayar 31,  Y Goud st Samant b Powar 5, T Naidu c Samant b Verma 33, B Akhil batting 53, SB Joshi lbw b Powar 6, A Kumble c Rahane b Powar 0, R Vinay Kumar c Samant b Powar 4, NC Aiyappa batting 1
Extras (LB2 NB3) 5
Total (9 wickets; 91 overs) 189
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-23, 3-72, 4-78, 5-97, 6-145, 7-164, 8-166, 9-172
Bowling: AB Agarkar 14-3-24-2, RP Verma 19-6-38-1, RR Powar 29-6-69-5, AM Nayar 12-4-17-1, I Abdulla 17-4-39-0