da doce： Robin Uthappa ensured the first two sessions went his Karnataka’s way, but a late fightback from the Andhra bowlers helped them claim a share of the opening day honours
da 888： The Bulletin by Siddarth Ravindran in Mysore16-Nov-2008
Scorecard
There was disappointment for a near-packed house in Mysore as Rahul Dravid fell for 39 © AFP
Rahul Dravid walked in to the roars of a nearly packed stadium – and his untimely exit left the crowds stunned – but it was Robin Uthappa, the Karnataka captain, who took the applause with his second century of the season at the Gangothri Glades Cricket Ground in Mysore. Uthappa ensured the first two sessions went his team’s way, but a late fightback from the Andhra bowlers helped them claim a share of the opening day honours.Uthappa chose to bat and though he and KB Pawan were confronted with a pitchthat had a tinge of green, they had little trouble negotiating the newball. Pawan set the early pace before Uthappa got into his groove.Uthappa was beaten several times early on. There were a few outside edges,and a reprieve when on 24 – Hemal Watekar grassing a chance at cover – buthe kept going for his shots.After the first hour, he was walking down the track even to the quickbowlers, a sign of his growing confidence. A couple of paddle-sweeps offthe legspinner M Suresh sent a further warning to the bowlers; after thefirst one was just cut off by the fine-leg fielder, Uthappa placed thenext one a little more finer to get a boundary. There were some impeccablytimed off-drives against the medium-pacers while his intelligent use ofthe horizontal bat shots blunted Suresh’s bowling. He put Karnataka righton top; at lunch they were at 105 for 0.A couple of quick wickets brought together the marquee names ofKarnataka’s batting, and the pair set about reinstating the hosts’advantage. Dravid was circumspect to start with, content to leave alone asmany deliveries as he could. He accepted an overpitched gift on leg stumpfrom P Vijaykumar to get going and employed the whip to square leg and thecut shot to keep the score ticking.It was Uthappa, though, who did the bulk of the scoring. More eye-catchingoff-drives flowed but it was a gentle push down the ground for three thatwas the stand-out stroke as Karnataka moved to 170 for 2. The crowdstarted to chant “Uthappa, Uthappa, sixer ” (Uthappa,Uthappa, we want sixer), and he duly obliged, slamming part-timer Watekarover the midwicket boundary. The next ball was also hammered in the samedirection, but landed just within the boundary.Andhra’s troubles were characterised by a piece of fielding soon after: athick outside edge from Uthappa flew towards third man, the fielderbelatedly decided to charge in to attempt a catch, he didn’t make it intime and it bounced past him for a four.With tea around the around the corner, Karnataka were at 197 for 2, andtheir best batsmen had got their eye in. That’s when things started tounravel. Uthappa fell trying a cute dab which was taken byWatekar at slip, C Raghu was run out by a direct hit from AG Pradeep atcover soon after tea, and Manish Pandey chipped a catch to LNP Reddyat mid-off. The score was now 216 for 5, and the Andhra team perked up,jogging quickly to their fielding positions at the end of every over.Much depended on Dravid, who was not flustered either by the Andhrabowling or the fall of wickets. However, only seven runs had been addedafter Pandey’s dismissal, when Dravid inexplicably shouldered arms to adelivery from D Kalyankrishna which crashed into his off stump. It wasAndhra who were now in control, though some hitting from Vinay Kumar(27*) and Sunil Joshi (18*) pushed the hosts to 277.
