Dodda Ganesh once again came to the rescue of his side as Karnataka salvaged a draw against Delhi in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'A' match at New Delhi on Thursday.
Ganesh (23 not out) along with R Vinay Kumar (15 not out) thwarted the Delhi attack for over an hour to finish at 201 for 7, after the visitors had lost their seventh wicket with the score reading 160 and about 15 overs yet to be bowled.
Ganesh, who was instrumental in helping his team make a respectable total in the first innings with a gutsy 46, showed that the effort was not a fluke as he faced both pace and spin with similar ease in the second essay.
However, the hosts boosted their chances of making it to the semi-finals by virtue of the two points they earned for the first innings lead. The former champions now have eight points from five outings and are locked on points with Gujarat, who lost their tie against Mumbai.
Set a target of 251 for victory, Karnataka batsmen failed to apply themselves on the slow Jamia Millia track and an outright win for Delhi looked round the corner when the visitors were reduced to 160 for 7 from 134 for 3.
Left-arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi claimed three wickets for 48 runs while leg-spinner Chetanya Nanda chipped in with two.
Barrington Rowland was the only top order batsman to show the patience required to score on the track as he made amends for his first innings failure to score 76 before being caught by Shikhar Dhawan off Sanghvi.
Earlier, Delhi raised hopes of an outright win as they claimed the last two Karnataka first innings wickets in just eight overs to restrict the visitors to 292.
With a lead of 135-runs in their kitty, the two Delhi openers went on an attacking spree, scoring at over six runs per over.
Aakash Chopra (66 not out) was back among runs after four successive failures while first innings centurion Shikhar Dhawan scored a quickfire 30 before being bowled by NSC Aiyappa.
Delhi skipper Ajay Jadeja declared the innings at the stroke of lunch giving his bowlers ample time to clean up the opponents' batting but had to remain satisfied with two points.
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