KL Rahul missed out on a first professional wicket in almost 12 years after a catch went down at first slip during Karnataka’s Ranji Trophy final against Jammu & Kashmir.
As Karnataka waited for the new ball and with the match almost out of grasp, captain Devdutt Padikkal decided to bring Rahul on. The wicketkeeper-batter bowled two overs for 15 runs but couldn’t pick up a wicket, despite coming close.
The pair of Qamran Iqbal and Sahil Lotra had already completed a 100-run stand for the fifth wicket, with the former having hit a hundred. Lotra had also completed his fifty. Rahul’s first over was rather uneventful, with three runs coming off it.
KL Rahul narrowly misses out on maiden first-class wicket
The J&K all-rounder then welcomed him with a maximum in his second over, but almost lost his wicket on the next ball. The wicketkeeper-batter, from around the wicket, bowled a back-of-a-length delivery outside the off-stump that Lotra tried to slice, only to edge it to Mayank Agarwal at first slip; the batter couldn’t hold onto the chance.
Qamran fetched a boundary off Rahul’s penultimate delivery as he leaked 12 runs in the over to finish with figures of 2-0-15-0. Karnataka took the new ball an over later, and Rahul wasn’t called on to bowl again. While he has yet to claim a first-class wicket, he does have a List A scalp to his name, which he picked up back in March 2014.
Playing for Karnataka against Goa during the 2013-14 Vijay Hazare Trophy, Rahul had middle-order batter Darshan Misal stumped by wicketkeeper CM Gautam. In a senior professional career that started in 2010, that remains his only wicket.
As far as the result was concerned, J&K won their maiden title courtesy of a first-innings lead against the eight-time champions. Shubham Pundir was named Player of the Match for a first-innings hundred, while Auqib Nabi was picked as the Player of the Season for picking up 60 wickets, including a five-wicket haul in the final.
Also Read: Full list of Ranji Trophy champions
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