Karnataka left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi dealt a severe blow to Gujarat's aspirations of a semi-final berth with a five-wicket haul on the penultimate day of the four-day 'Elite' Group 'B' Ranji Trophy match at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad, on Friday.
Gujarat, who began their second essay after conceding a 143-run first innings lead, are only nine runs ahead, with their top five batsmen already back in the pavilion courtesy Joshi.
When stumps were drawn for the day, Gujarat were struggling at 152 for 5, with Nilesh Modi and Timil Patel unbeaten on 53 and 10 respectively.
The Gujarat batsmen once again found the going tough, four of them out leg before to Joshi today despite a confident start provided by a 69-run association between openers Modi and Akash Christian.
Christian, who has wielded the willow impressively this season was the first LBW victim of Joshi, after cracking eight fours in his 98-ball knock of 47.
Neeraj Patel (6), Amit Sood (19) and captain Mukund Parmar (9) soon followed, falling to Joshi in a similar fashion.
Modi (53 not out), who was the lone survivor of the Joshi onslaught, agonisingly crawled to his half century, which came off 216 balls after staying at the crease for nearly four-and-half hours.
With no other specialist batsman remaining, the hosts face the threat of being bundled out for a meagre score, which could leave Karnataka an easy target.
Earlier, Karnataka, resuming their first innings at the overnight total of 280 for six, were bowled out for 353 before lunch.
Leg spinner Salil Yadav removed overnight batsman Joshi (34) and pacer Dodda Ganesh (0) in quick succession with the total 299.
However, centurion Rowland Barrington and tailender BVK Prasad put together a vital 47-run partnership to take the team to 346.
Barrington also brought up his 150 before falling leg before to leg spinner Timil Patel.
An outright win against Bengal in the next match will not be enough for Gujarat, who are locked on eight points with Hyderabad, in case they lose this match tomorrow.
Their hopes are bleak as Karnataka, who will score 10 points, in case they pull off a victory, face less fancied Assam in their final outing.
