Oh, those losses to Karnataka!

As cricket crazy Indians were lapping up the start of the T20 World Cup two fierce domestic rivals Mumbai and Karnataka were locked in battle at the MCABKC ground to qualify for the Ranji Trophy semifinalsKarnataka couldnrsquot have asked for a better start on February 6 bowling out the 42time champions for just 120 at the MCABKC groundMumbai as they often do fought back and restricted Karnataka to a 53run lead A better showing in the second innings saw Mumbai post 377 giving Karnataka a 325run target Karnataka who had Test batsmen KL Rahul Karun Nair skipper Devdutt Padikkal and Mayank Agarwal in their ranks overwhelmed the hosts by reaching their target with four wickets to spareOne of the sub plots of the quarterfinal was who would fare better among the two current India Test opening batsmen mdash Yashasvi Jaiswal or Rahul Although Jaiswal put up a positive show in the second innings Rahul walked away proud with a fourth innings century that evaporated Mumbairsquos hopes The delight quotient earned by Karnataka through their win over Mumbai will not be brought to nought even if the southern state fails to get their hands on the Ranji Trophy As for Mumbai this deep cut will take some healingKarnataka thwarting Mumbai reminded me of some of their wins over Mumbai in the knockout rounds of the Ranji Trophy mdash in 197374 198182 and 198687 The 197374 semifinal in the Garden City had Ajit Wadekarrsquos defending champions taking on Erapalli Prasannarsquos Karnataka whose victory broke Mumbairsquos 15season titlewinning streakIn 198182 Mumbai were troubled by Karnatakarsquos future India spinner Raghuram Bhat 8123 and 577 who turned the ball square prompting skipper Sunil Gavaskar to bat lefthanded in a bid to combat himMumbai allrounder Suru Nayak who was to make his India debut later in the year recalled how spinfriendly the Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch was and how the hurt of losing the semifinal stayed on for a while ldquoWe had no answer to Bhat in that game We were very disappointed since we had beaten Delhi in the Ranji final the previous year with five regulars on India duty in Australia and New Zealandrdquo Nayak told me on TuesdayThe match was marred by poor crowd behaviour the spectators incensed by umpire Rajen Mehra adjudging Vishwanath out The Mumbai fielders reportedly appealed for a caught Vengsarkar bowled Ashok Mankad verdict after Mankadrsquos leg before wicket appeal was turned down ldquoA surprised Vishwanath stood there for a few seconds that was longer than usualrdquo said The Sportstar magazine reportThe following season Mumbai lost the Ranji Trophy final to Karnataka at the Wankhede Stadium where the visitors responded to Mumbairsquos first innings score of 534 with 551Under the headline lsquoKarnataka win mdash lose friendsrsquo Sharad Kotnis who covered the game for Sportsweek magazine wrote that the spectators were treated to a bigscoring game but were left disappointed by the twin failures of Gundappa Vishwanath dismissed by pacer Suresh Shetty in both innings and captain Brijesh Patelrsquos ldquoinability to accept the challenge in the dying momentsrdquo Patel clearly didnrsquot want to jeopardise a Ranji titleVishwanath was a constant feature in Karnataka vs Mumbai games in the 1970s and 1980sIn the 197374 semifinal he carved 162 in the decisive first innings His 144 went in vain in the following seasonrsquos finalIn the 198687 quarterfinal he was sent back by leftarm spinner Ravi Thakkar as Karnataka piled up 465 The visitors threatened to get there through the batting efforts of Sulakshan Kulkarni 175 and Sanjay Manjrekar 99 but they fell short by 61 runsldquoIt was so disappointing to lose on the first innings We planned to bat session by session Getting run out through a brilliant fielding effort with the ball going through Syed Kirmanirsquos feet to hit the stumps is something I will never forgetrdquo Kulkarni told me on Tuesday The former Mumbai coach also remembered how Karnataka dished out another turning track for its visitors in complete contrast to what they got for practice sessionsldquoMy innings was appreciated by Sunil Gavaskar at a function in Mumbai after that match and many years later Gundappa Vishwanath introduced me to legends like BS Chandrasekhar and EAS Prasanna by bringing up my inningsrdquoIncidentally Vishwanathrsquos farewell to firstclass cricket coincided with Karnatakarsquos first innings loss to Mumbai in the 198788 Ranji Trophy prequarterfinal at the Wankhede StadiumThe memory of Mondayrsquos Mumbai vs Karnataka result will linger for those part of the action Karnataka will look to push on for their ninth Ranji Trophy triumph while Mumbai will lick their wounds hoping that Title No 43 will not be as far away as their sharpest critics think it will bemiddayrsquos Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper