Holders UP lose to Karnataka, will have to struggle for knockout

Lucknow, Dec 12 (UNI) The return of international stars could not save holders Uttar Pradesh from two-wicket defeat at the hand of Karnataka in four-day Ranji Trophy Cricket super league match in Kanpur today.

UP, led by Team India star Mohd Kaif, now is faced with elimination from league stage if fail to register outright victories in rest of the league matches. UP, with just two points against their name, will now face Haryana in next match at Rohtak from December 17.

The performance of UP, who had won the coveted Ranji championship last year, was much below par and that too in the presence of Kaif, Suresh Raina, R P Singh and Piyush Chawla.

In the match played at Kamla club grounds Kanpur, Karnataka resumed their second innings from pathetic 54 for five to register their victory by scoring 125 for eight.

Kaif, who was top scorer with 91 in the first innings, failed in the second outing while Raina, already under fire for his dismal performance in the national side, also failed in both the innings.

Though Rudra Pratap Singh, the test and one day discard, gave spirited display of medium pace bowling claiming 4 wickets for 30 runs in the second innings could not see host side through.

Jyoti Yadav, the former UP captain who had to make way for Kaif to lead, was also a moderate success. The young Tanmay Srivastava, just graduated from junior cricket who has shown a lot of promise with his impressive Ranji debut in the last match, flopped in both the innings after he was asked to open.

Score Card: Uttar Pradesh 1st innings 264 Karnataka 1st innings 337 Uttar Pradesh 2nd innings 194 Karnataka 2nd innings BM Rowland b SJ Srivastava 7 AR Uthappa c Ravikant b SJ Srivastava 5 B Chipli c Singh b Kumar 3 C Raghu c Kumar b Singh 50 YKT Goud b Kumar 1 VST Naidu b Singh 11 ST Binny c SJ Srivastava b Singh 4 SB Joshi lbw b Singh 4 B Akhil not out 16 R Vinay Kumar not out 5 Extras (b 3, lb 5, nb 11) 19 Total (8 wickets; 39.5 overs) 125 Did not bat KP Appanna Fall of wickets 1-11 , 2-15, 3-23 , 4-24 , 5-54 , 6-58 7-73, 8-120 Bowling O M R W SJ Srivastava 13.5 2 36 2 P Kumar 12 3 29 2 Piyush Chawla 3 0 12 0 RP Singh 9 0 30 4 M Kaif 2 0 10 0 UNI SB MB DH RS1356