MUMBAI, March 16: "If they stay put for four days the boys would have done the job," was the Karnataka coach Beerala Raghunath's prescription for his cricketers in their battle against Mumbai. The Karnataka batsmen put the coach's advice into practice that saw them frustrate the defending champions and eke out a creditable draw at the Wankhede Stadium this evening.Chasing a stiff victory target of 352 runs from 70 overs, Karnataka were in deep trouble losing the top three batsmen with 45 runs on the board. However, Fazal Khaleel (83: 151b, 215m, 14x4), Vijay Bharadwaj (10), Sunil Joshi (32 n.o.) and Somasekhar Shiraguppi (12 n.o.) enacted lead roles in the rescue act until the curtains fell on the feature event of the Ranji Trophy Super League.Thus, Karnataka nosed ahead of Mumbai to emerge as the winners of the Super League tallying 27 points. The hosts, who collected five from their concluding Group A match had to be content with second slot having logged 26 points. Both teams bypass the next stageand directly qualify for the semi-finals. While Karnataka booked the berth having collected the maximum number of points in the Super League, Mumbai were assured of a place in the last four owing to their defending champion status.The day opened to a flurry of strokes with the Mumbai duo - opener Sunil More and Amol Muzumdar - amassing almost 100 runs in 18 overs before skipper Vinod Kambli applied closure to the innings.More, who had made his debut five seasons ago and is now making a comeback after a two-year hibernation, was the more dominant partner. Having consumed 107 balls for 21 runs yesterday, More stepped on the accelerator, when Mumbai resumed the day on 98 for 1. He added 61 runs in 54 balls today which included eight fluent boundaries to remain unbeaten on 83.Muzumdar, More's partner in a 124-run alliance for the second wicket, had an equal share of the batting brilliance while compiling an unbeaten 53 (78b, 97m, 8x4).Set an uphill task, Karnataka got off to a disastrous start whenthey lost skipper Sujit Somasundar to the third ball of the innings. Medium-pacer Abey Kuruvilla dug one short and all that the batsman could do was fend it to Amit Pagnis at forward short leg. The other pacemen Paras Mhambrey and Santosh Saxena too struck once each to leave the opposition in a bad shape.It brought Karnataka's best men suited for such an occasion - Khaleel and Bharadwaj. They defied the Mumbai bowlers for nearly two hours.With Bharadwaj more content in the occupation of the crease, Khaleel took charge of the scoring. Khaleel, who celebrated his 25th birthday last week, spanked the rival bowlers whenever they erred with each of his 14 boundaries carrying an element of class with it. Interestingly, in just two innings here (49 & 83), Khaleel has almost equalled the number of runs (135) that he had scored this season.The tussle between the medium-pacers and Khaleel provided a keen fare in the post-lunch session. With no assistance from the track, they tried to soften the batsmen withthe short-pitched stuff while bowling from round the wicket.Mhambrey almost nailed Khaleel when the batsmen miscued a pull to deep fine leg fielder Santosh Saxena, who spilled the sitter. However, Khaleel didn't last long and was claimed by left-arm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni in the close-in cordon. Mumbai saw a ray of hope during this period as three wickets fell for 12 runs with Karnataka needing another 22 overs to save the game.Bharadwaj, who had defended dourly for 110 minutes, was the first to depart, slashing Mhambrey to Mandar Phadke at cover-point. DS Ananth followed when he jabbed Kulkarni to Muzumdar at silly point.Thereafter, Joshi and wicket-keeper Shiraguppi batted sensibly to anchor the Karnataka innings to safety. Kambli pressed in the services of six bowlers including himself to break the resistance but met with little success.The shoulder injury to all-rounder Rajesh Sutar who bowls off-spin, proved to be the missing link during the closing stages as Mumbai tried hard for a win tillthe last mandatory over.The Karnataka skipper Sujit Somasundar in a post match chat admitted that Mumbai played well in all departments of the game. "We gave a good resistance and managed to save the game," he remarked.The sore area in the team's display has been their fielding. "The fielding let us down and we have to put in a lot of effort to improve it," he said. The Mumbai coach Balwinder Singh Sandhu, while hiding his disappointment at not topping the group, felt that his team dished out an excellent performance today. "On an unhelpful track we were able to prise out six wickets and that was commendable," commented the former Indian medium-pacer.SCOREBOARDMumbai (1st innings): 467Karnataka (1st innings): 313Mumbai (2nd innings; overnight 98-1): Amit Pagnis c Johnson b Joshi 47, Sunil More not out 82, Amol Muzumdar not out 53; Extras (b8, lb1, w2, nb3): 14. Total (for one wicket, in 52 overs, 210 mins): 196Fall of wicket: 1-72Bowling:Ganesh 8-1-31-0 (nb3), Somasunder 15-3-39-0 (w1), Arun Kumar 3-1-13-0 (w1), Katti 12-1-37-0, Joshi 12-1-52-1, Bharadwaj 2-0-15-0Karnataka (2nd innings): Sujit Somasunder c Pagnis b Kuruvilla 0, Arun Kumar c Sulakshan Kulkarni b Mhambrey 1, Fazal Khaleel c Pagnis b Nilesh Kulkarni 83, Krishnaraj Sriram c Sulkashan Kulkarni b Saxena 14, Vijay Bharadwaj c Phadke b Mhambrey 10, D S Ananth c Muzumdar b Nilesh Kulkarni 0, Sunil Joshi not out 30, Somasekhar Shiraguppi not out 12; Extras (lb15, w1, nb11): 27. Total (for six wkts, in 70 overs, 313 mins) 177Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-8, 3-45, 4-116, 5-125, 6-128Bowling: Kuruvilla 13-3-41-1 (nb7), Mhambrey 16-4-30-2 (nb1, w1), Nilesh Kulkarni 27-9-59-2, Saxena 9-3-21-1 (nb3), More 4-0-11-0, Kambli 1-1-0-0Result: Match drawnPoints: Mumbai 5, Karnataka 3
