NCA make holders KSCA struggle for runs

Holders Karnataka State Cricket Association XI could not have been very happy at stumps on the first day of their Buchi Babu All India invitation tournament quarterfinal against National Cricket Academy at the CPT-IP ground in Chennai on Thursday. They struggled during the day to score at two runs an over and when play was called off with 4.5 overs still left to be bowled because of bad light, they were 182 for five wickets.

After KSCA won the toss, Mithun Beerala was off to a confident start. He hit four boundaries and out of the first wicket stand of 22 runs off 10.5 overs with Roland Barrington, he scored all but one before being caught by Sharandeep Singh off medium pacer RB Patel.

Joined by Amit Kumar, Barrington continued to struggle and by the time he was second out, leg before to skipper RS Sodhi, at 56 in the 21st over, he had batted 104 minutes and faced 61 balls for his 18.

Vijay Bharadwaj did not last long. He was bowled by Sriram for six runs for which he took his time - 48 balls. Amit Kumar who had dominated the scoring till then was fourth out at 86. For his 34, he batted two hours, faced 67 balls and hit six fours.

AR Mahesh and RC Shanbal then brought about a recovery of sorts by adding 40 runs for the fifth wicket but the runs continued to be scored at a tardy rate. The association lasted all of 25.4 overs before Shanbal was caught by Gambhir off Kaif. During his stay of an hour and a half, Shanbal faced 74 balls and hit two fours.

The recovery process continued with Mahesh and SN Shiraguppi adding 56 runs for the unbroken sixth wicket partnership which has so far lasted 29 overs. When stumps were drawn prematurely, Mahesh had come through unbeaten with 40 for which he had faced 180 balls. He had only three boundary hits. Shirugappi was not much more enterprising scoring 25 off 93 balls with just one four.

Sodhi tried eight bowlers in all including himself and five of them came through with one wicket each. At the end of the day's play, the youngsters from the Bangalore based academy would have no doubt looked back at a job well done.