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Prasad gives a pep talk to Orissa bowlers

April 18, 2007 18:35 IST

Venkatesh Prasad has a word with the Orissa bowlers after the match

India captain Rahul Dravid (left) chats with Team India's new bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad during the Karnataka versus Orissa Twenty20 match on Wednesday.

Karnataka outplayed Orissa by 44 runs to record their second successive win in the Inter-State All India Twenty20 Tournament in Mumbai.

Put in to bat, Karnataka set a challenging target of 158 runs before Orissa, who were looking for their first win in the tournament.

A fluent half-century by Dravid (54) and a fine effort from opener Devraj Patil (44) rescued Karnataka from an early jolt.

Following the loss of Robin Utthappa in the third over, Dravid, who smacked nine boundaries in his 35-ball knock, added 88 runs for the second wicket with stumper Patil.

Middle-order batsman Deepak Chougule's unbeaten quickfire 29 helped Karnataka to a competitive score.

Orissa, chasing Karnataka's total of 157 for 7, were never in the hunt and were dismissed for 113 in the final over.

They had a bad start, losing opener B Mohapatra off the second ball, and kept on losing wickets at regular intervals that proved to be their undoing.

A brief period of resistance followed when skipper Prabhanjan Mullick (40) was at the crease but it only delayed the inevitable once Orissa had lost half of their side for only 66 runs.

Photographs: Arun Patil

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