Bharadwaj, Naidu spur Karnataka

In the second innings, New Zealand was 12 without loss in six overs with Matthew Horne on nine and Matthew Bell on two.

Karnataka collapsed after a sound start and was tottering at 74 for three at lunch before the fourth wicket pair thrashed the New Zealand attack and helped the home team to recover. For Karnataka opener J Arun Kumar was the other batsman to make 31. Medium-pacer Christ Drum 4-19, spinner Paul Wiseman 3-99 and Chris Cairns 2-30 were the successful bowlers for New Zealand.

Anil Kumble obviously delayed the declaration to enable Vijay Bharadwaj, who has been havinga good season, to complete another century on home crowd. Vijay Bharadwaj, who batted for 230 minutes, gave a catch in the deep while trying to clear wiseman to reach his 100. In his 96, he hit 16 boundaries from the 171 balls he faced.

Kiwi skipper Stephen Fleming, who forced a sporting declaration, used his bowlers effectively and ensured that they sent in short spells.

Sujith Somasundar and J Arun Kumar batted sensibly and were not troubled by the Kiwi opening attack. The two scored runs easily before off-spinner Wiseman delivered the first blow trapping Arun Kumar leg before.

That triggered the collapse as Karnataka slumped from 63 for no loss to 74 for three at lunch. A Vijay, who was promoted ahead of Rahul Dravid, saw Sujith Somasundar departing to a doubtful caught behind decision off Drum for 18. Later, Drum rattled the stumps of A Vijay 1 with Vijay Bharadwaj on three.

Thilak Naidu, who was a last minute replacement for injured Somashekar Shiraguppi, made the most of a dropped catch byStephen Fleming in the slips off Chris Cairns. The batsman was on six and the side total on 94.

After that both the batsmen dominated the bowling and struck attractive boundaries taking the score past 150. The two went on to score their half centuries in style. Vijay Bharadwaj was lucky as Chris Harris failed to hold on to a difficult caught and bowled chance with his score on 56 and team total 187.

As tea was approaching, Naidu was beaten by the turn and was bowled to give Wiseman another wicket. He hit nine boundaries in his 93-ball innings.

The team went into tea at 198 for four with Bharadwaj on 59 and Dravid on six.

Immediately after tea, Cairns struck two quick blows removing Dravid 6 and Sunil Joshi 0 caught in the slips by Spearman. Cairns8217; spell after tea read 3-1-5-2.

Scoreboard

New Zealand 1st innings: 249-6 decl

Karnataka 1st innings: Sujith Somasundar c Parore b Drum 18, J Arun Kumar lbw Wiseman 31, A Vijay b Drum 1, Vijay Bharadwaj c Horne b Wiseman 96, Thilak Naidub Wiseman 52, Rahul Dravid b Cairns 6, Sunil Joshi c Spearman b Cairns 0, Anil Kumble lbw Drum 11, Anand Yalvigi c Parore b Drum 6, Dodda Ganesh not out 12. Extras b7, lb11, nb18: 36. Total for nine wickets declared in 82 overs: 269

Fall of wickets: 1-63, 2-65, 3-74, 4-189, 5-198, 6-204, 7-231, 8-239, 9-269.

Bowling: Penn 11-2-49-0, Cairns 11-3-30-2, Wiseman 26-3-99-3, Drum 12-3-19-4, Astle 6-1-17-0, Harris 16-5-37-0

New Zealand 2nd innings: Mathew Horne batting 9, Mathew Bell batting 2. Extras b1: 1. Total

for no loss: 12

Bowling: Ganesh 2-1-2-0, Khan 1-1-0-0, Bharadwaj 1-0-9-0, Kumble 1-1-0-0, Joshi 1-1-0-0