Gujarat's hopes of gaining a semi-final berth suffered a major setback after they were thrashed by Karnataka in their own backyard by ten wickets on the final day of 'Elite' Group 'B' Ranji Trophy match in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
After left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi rattled the hosts with a five-wicket haul yesterday, it was leg spinner Udit Patel who cleaned up the tail, bagging four wickets today.
Patel, son of former Test player Brijesh Patel, grabbed the wickets of Timil Patel (10), Siddharth Trivedi (6), Shyamal Bhatt (2) and Lalit Patel (2) to bundle out the hosts for 172.
With a first-innings lead of 143, Karnataka scored the required 30 runs in just 7.2 overs without losing a wicket and wrapped up the one-sided affair in 70 minutes of play today.
Earlier, opener Nilesh Modi, who stood tall amidst the ruins, could add only 10 runs to his overnight 53. He skied one to long-on fielder Stuart Binny off Joshi.
Joshi returned with six for 59 off 34.3 overs.
Having gained four points from the match and one bonus for the 10-wicket win, Karnataka now stand second in the table with 11 points, just behind Tamil Nadu (15).
Today's defeat left Gujarat, locked on eight points with Hyderabad, with the daunting task of beating Bengal in their last league match, beginning December 25.
However, with Karnataka and Hyderabad facing less-fancied Assam and Rajasthan respectively, even a victory over West Bengal may not be enough for Gujarat to make it to the semis.
Gujarat 1st Innings: 210 all out (78 overs)
Karnataka 1st innings: 353 all out (121.4)
Gujarat 2nd Innings:
N Modi c S Binny b S Joshi 63
A Christian LBW b S Joshi 47
N Patel LBW b S Joshi 6
A Sood LBW b S Joshi 19
M Parmar LBW b S Joshi 9
B Thaker c R Uttaappa b S Joshi 2
T Patel c R Utappa b U Patel 10
S Bhatt LBW U Patel 2
S Trivedi c R Utappa b U Patel 6
L patel c R Barrington b U Patel 2
S Jadhav not out 0
Extras (lb-2, nb-2, w-2) 6
Total (all out in 84.3 overs) 172
Fall of wickets: 1-69, 2-79, 3-111, 4-132, 5-136, 7-152, 8-158, 9-170, 10-172
Bowling: V prasad 12-4-22-0, D Ganesh 15-5-34-0, S Joshi 34.3-13-59-6, U Patel 22-6-53-4, R Barringtron 1-0-2-0.
Karnataka 2nd innings:
J Arunkumar not out 21
B Rowland not out 7
Extras (nb-2) 2
Total (7.2 overs) 30
Bowling: S patel 2-0-8-0, L Patel 1-0-5-0, S Jadav 2.2-0-14-0, T Patel 2-0-3-0.
