In a practise match, the Karnataka state squad dominates the Asian Games-bound India Men’s team.

In a surprising turn of events, Karnataka absolutely controlled the game against the Asian Games-bound Indian squad on Friday, September 22 at the Alur grounds.

In the match, the second-string national team batted first, but they had a nightmare because the Karnataka state bowlers caused so much damage to the batsmen with their uncanny rhythm. As a result, the Indian squad scored just 133 runs before being easily bowled out.

Speaking of the warm-up game, the Karnataka team’s pacers put on remarkable efforts, keeping the game fairly close. This implied that they seldom ever offered free deliveries to the national players so they might have fun at the plate. The inability of Karnataka to allow any easy run leaks upset the Indian hitters. The young Karnataka bowlers’ total bowling statistics made this very obvious.

While Manoj Bhandage shone with the ball for his team with a four-wicket (4/15) haul for the state, Pacers V. Koushik (3/36) had a three-wicket haul. Shubhang Hegde (3/17), a left-arm spinner, also contributed to the spin department by taking three wickets for Karnataka.

Karnataka’s Manish Pandey shone with the bat in a masterful run chase.

Speaking about the game and the standout performances, Yashasvi Jaiswal (31) of the India team, who will represent the nation at the Asian Games now taking place in Huangzhou, China, did get some traction but was unable to capitalise on it. He was followed by Prabhsimran Singh (49), who displayed good hand skills but almost missed reaching his half-century.

Things did not appear to be difficult for the Karnataka batters as the national team bowlers failed to maintain tight line and length in their attempt to protect a low-scoring total. As a result, Manish Pandey, an experienced batsman, played an excellent innings and remained undefeated (52*) for a merited half-century to help Karnataka win the match in just 19.1 overs.