Karnataka blow away Delhi on final day

A spirited team effort by Karnataka saw them defeat Delhi by a whopping 159-run margin despite conceding the first innings lead in a Ranji Trophy group league encounter at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Starting the day at 40 for 3, Delhi were all out for 250 in 81.5 overs, nine of the 10 wickets being claimed by the home team's seamers.

Chasing a daunting target of 410 was never on the minds of the Delhi batsmen, but they aimed at batting out three session in order to get three points from the vital away match.

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Save veterans Mithun Manhas, who scored 80, and Rajat Bhatia, who chipped in with 63, none of the other Delhi batsmen were ready to put their heads down and fight it out.

The 'old warhorses' added 110 runs for the sixth wicket after Delhi slumped to 76 for 5 in the first hour.

Manhas and Bhatia batted for nearly 38 overs and it looked like they would be able to draw the match.

But once Stuart Binny dismissed both Manhas and Bhatia on either side of the tea-break, the writing was there on the wall.

While skipper R Vinay Kumar had figures of three for 59, young HS Sharath got three for 40 while Binny bagged the most important wickets apart from scoring half centuries in both innings.

Delhi remain on 11 points from six matches and are fifth in the league table, while Karnataka jumped from last place to a notch below the visitors, having played one match less.

Shikhar Dhawan's men will now hope to get an outright win against Maharashtra in their next match at the Roshanara ground in Delhi.

Brief Scores:

Karnataka: 192 & 475.

Delhi: 258 & 250 (Mithun Manhas 80, Rajat Bhatia 63, HS Sharath 3/40, R Vinay Kumar 3/59).

Points: Karnataka 6; Delhi 0.