BANGALORE, Oct 3: But for rains crying halt to proceedings, Karnataka might well have taken strike a second time by Saturday evening itself against Rest of India. This would best summarise the third day's play in the Irani Trophy cricket tie at the KSCA Stadium.When bad light, and later rains, forced play to be called off, Rest, replying to the home team's 326, were tottering at 202 for seven. Only Delhi player Nikhil Chopra (44 batting) came good on the day as the Karnataka bowlers systematically plotted their rivals' downfall.Overnight batsmen, S Sharath and Rohan Gavaskar, flattered to deceive. Sharath, after seeing off the thrust of the luckless Venkatesh Prasad and the dangerous Sunil Joshi, finally fell playing a loose stroke against Doddanarasiah Ganesh.The Tamil Nadu left-hander, who was extremely cautious in his approach this morning, suddenly tried to play an ambitious drive at a Ganesh delivery that left him. Wicketkeeper Somashekar Siruguppi dived low to his left to cling on to theresultant edge.Gavaskar, consistently troubled by the delivery pitched up and in line with the off-stump, edged Sunil Joshi to Sujith Somasundar at slip. The dismissal of Gavaskar and Sharath within the first 70 minutes of play was a severe setback for Rest of India. Their top order was packed off and it was left to the tail to make a fight of it.The sixth wicket pair of MSK Prasad and Chopra saw the team through to lunch and added 65 runs in 38 overs before Prasad (17, 114 balls) was snapped up bat-pad at forward short leg off part-time bowler Vijay Bharadwaj. A little later, Bharadwaj accounted for L Sivaramakrishnan (0) whom he had caught behind down the leg-side.Chopra, who pulled a six off DS Ananth, was batting on a combative 44 (137 balls, 5x4, 1x6) with Paras Mhambrey (0) when the umpires stopped play 70 minutes after lunch due to bad light. Tea was taken 30 minutes ahead of schedule, but by then an incessant drizzle had impossible the prospects of any play for the rest of the day.TheKarnataka bowlers, particularly the two medium pacers and left-arm spinner Joshi, cornered all the glory with some disciplined bowling. Skipper Prasad operated with pace from one end and spin from the other almost throughout the morning and this paid dividends. Joshi (3-49), Ganesh (2-47) and off-spinner Bharadwaj (2-10) were the wicket-takers.SCOREBOARDKarnataka (1st innings): 326Rest of India (1st innings, overnight 100 for 3): Laxman c Girish b Ganesh 19; Jyothi Yadav c Ganesh b Joshi 11; Majumdar c Prasad b Joshi 17; Sharath c Siruguppi b Ganesh 26; Gavaskar c Somasundar b Joshi 40; MSK Prasad c Girish b Vijay Bharadwaj 17; Nikhil Chopra (batting) 44; Sivaramakrishnan c Siruguppi b Vijay Bharadwaj 0; Extras (9b, lb1, nb17, w1) 28.Total (for 7 wickets in 103 overs, 399 mins) 202Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-50, 3-77, 4-126, 5-132, 6-197, 7-201Bowling: Venkatesh Prasad 21-10-29-0; D Ganesh 16-1-47-2; Sunil Joshi 38-20-49-3; DS Ananth 6-1-35-0; Anand Katti15-6-22-0; Vijay Bharadwaj 7-5-10-2.
