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MatériaMais Notícias

Nesta quinta-feira, na Fazendinha, em São Paulo, Corinthians e Atlético-MG fizeram o primeiro jogo da semifinal do Brasileirão sub-20 e o resultado foi um empate em 1 a 1, que acabou sendo um ótimo placar para os visitantes, que perdiam por 1 a 0 até os 42 minutos do segundo tempo, quando Wesley igualou. Já o gol do Timão foi marcado por Cauê, no início da primeira etapa.

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Primeiro tempo com domínio do Timãozinho

O Corinthians iniciou a partida comandando as ações ofensivas, logo aos três minutos, Lucas Pires trabalhou a bola pela esquerda, driblou dois jogadores e, ao cruzar, o zagueiro conseguiu desviar para escanteio. Na batida, Reginaldo tocou curto para Vitinho, que chutou direto para o gol, no entanto o goleiro Jean conseguiu fazer a defesa, espalmando para fora.

Poucos minutos depois, Lucas Pires novamente criou a jogada no meio-campo, pela esquerda, tocou para Vitinho, que lançou para a outra ponta, onde Julio cruzou à meia altura para Cauê, que tentou uma fez, mas na segunda pegou o rebote para balançar a rede do Atlético-MG e abrir o placar para os paulistas.

Melhor no jogo, o Corinthians chegou mais três vezes com perigo, mas não conseguiu ampliar a vantagem no marcador. Oprimeiro ataque do Galo aconteceu numa cobrança de falta aos 32 minutos, quando Guilherme Santos bateu falta e a bola explodiu no travessão. Foi a melhor chance dos visitantes.

Jogo muda no segundo tempo e Atlético-MG não perdoa

Na volta do intervalo, o Galo retornou bem melhor e em 15 minutos teve duas chegadas perigosas ao gol de Guilherme Pezão, duas vezes com Guilherme Santos, o artilheiro da competição. Os dois técnicos fizeram mudanças para tentar alterar os rumos do jogo, mas somente o Atlético-MG viu resultado.

Aos 22 minutos, Wesley tentou marcar um gol olímpico e quase surpreendeu Guilherme Pezão. Pouco tempo depois, Guilherme Santos voltou a levar perigo em um chute colocado após saída errada da defesa do Corinthians, mas a bola foi para fora. Em seguida, no primeiro lance de perigo do Timão na segunda etapa, quase ampliou o placar com Alemão, em cabeio que raspou a trave.

Com os corintianos bem abaixo da crítica, o Atlético-MG se manteve no ataque e aos 35 minutos Pezão precisou trabalhar novamente, quando o atleticano Luiz Filipe fez grande jogada e chutou forte para a defesa do goleiro. O empate parecia cada vez mais próximo e ele veio aos 42, após lateral cobrado para área. A bola sobrou para Wesley bater colocado e marcar: 1 a 1 no placar.

Hiago Ribeiro ainda teve uma chance para marcar o gol da virada, após cruzamento de Luiz Filipe, mas a bola passou tirando tinta da trave corintiana e a igualdade permaneceu. Com o empate, a decisão fica para a partida de volta, na próxima segunda-feira, às 15h, no Estádio das Alterosas, em Belo Horizonte. Quem vencer, fica com a vaga na final, já um novo empate leva aos pênaltis.

A series of clips shows Mikel Arteta used to refuse to celebrate goals against Arsenal when at he was Pep Guardiola's assistant Manchester City.

Article continues below

Article continues below

Article continues below

• Arteta was at City for over three years
• Rejoined Arsenal in 2019
• Arsenal face City in key game

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  Footage of Arteta sat in the City dugout has shown he would remain seated, rather than up celebrating, when City would score against Arsenal. Arteta spent three-and-a-half years as Guardiola’s assistant before returning as manager to the club he finished his career at. Arteta does not share the same affinity with City and few would be surprised if he celebrates lavishly on Sunday should he beat his former club.

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• WATCH THE CLIP

• WHAT GUARDIOLA SAID ABOUT ARTETA

  In 2023, Guardiola spoke about Arteta's refusal to celebrate. He said: "I know he went to his club, the team he dreams of. He's a supporter, he was a captain there. He loves the club.

  "I remember here when we scored goals he jumped a lot except against one team. He was sitting there – it was Arsenal. I said, 'That guy likes Arsenal'. Like here, if I'm training as assistant and Barcelona call me, I go."

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Arteta has transformed Arsenal into City's key challengers in the past two seasons and they’re vying for the title once again. Arteta's team are top of the Premier League and are arguably more equipped than ever to end their Etihad hoodoo and seize initiative in the title race.

Yorkshire have signed Mathew Pillans on a three-year contract from Surrey, with the South Africa-born fast bowler moving on loan for the rest of the season.Pillans joined Surrey in 2016, arriving in the UK on an ancestral visa, but has found his opportunities limited. His chief contributions at The Oval came in T20, while he also enjoyed a successful loan spell at Leicestershire last year.The 27-year-old has an impressive record from his time with Dolphins in South Africa, and he will add to Yorkshire’s pace options after Liam Plunkett agreed a move in the other direction to Surrey.”Mat has been at Surrey for a couple of years now, and he’s not had a huge amount of opportunity in the first team, so he’s looking to progress his career,” Yorkshire’s director of cricket, Martyn Moxon, said. “We’re obviously looking for that continuity of availability. He fits the bill for us.”He’s a bowler who has pace and is tall, and we’re looking forward to having him on board. I’m sure he’ll do well for us. He’s a different type of bowler to what we’ve already got. We’ve got a strong seam bowling squad, but it’s nice to have a bit of variety. Mat gives us something we haven’t currently got.”Pillans has previously indicated his intention of qualifying to play for England, although he will be 31 by the time he does so. Tall and with a strong action, he is also a powerful striker with the bat.”My initial reaction was it’s great to be joining a club with great heritage,” he said of the move to Yorkshire. “It’s quite an honour, and I felt proud when I signed the contract.”It was a bit out of the blue. I hadn’t really got anything planned to be honest. Being my last year at Surrey, I was just focusing on the cricket. The talent that Surrey have there made it a competitive environment. In that sense, to feed off the talent, I feel my game improved quite a bit being there.”In saying that, I feel I have bit more to offer given what I’ve learnt. It will great to put that into practice when I get to Yorkshire. From a personal point of view, my number one objective is to improve my game as much as I can and be the best cricketer I can be.”I’m coming into another talented changing room, so hopefully I can continue to learn. Hopefully there’s also something I can add to the party with that as well. As soon as I qualify for England, I want to be up to that standard. That’s a long-term goal, though.”

Tottenham Hotspur have been told that if they're genuinely "serious" about challenging for the Premier League title, they must go and sign a "unique" star.

Spurs form this season

Spurs are being given a new lease of life by manager Ange Postecoglou, who's guided them to six wins out of eight in an unbeaten league start. The Australian, coming in from Celtic over the summer, has just been handed a second-consecutive Manager of the Month award – highlighting his phenomenal job thus far. Guiding Tottenham through their best start to a campaign since the 1960/1961 season, when they won a domestic double, things are well and truly on the up at N17. Indeed, there are plenty of reasons for supporters to be excited right now.

While the north Londoners are out of the EFL Cup already, having been knocked out by Fulham in the second round on penalties, their imperious top flight form suggests that they could, at the very least, challenge for a top four place. The FA Cup is also up for grabs, with Postecoglou's side now tasked with maintaining this excellent start.

All of this is perhaps made much more impressive by the absence of club legend and star striker Harry Kane, who departed for Bayern Munich over the summer. Kane, watching on as Postecoglou ushers in a new era, only has praise for the club he adores.

"I have made it clear my whole career I am a Tottenham fan and I would love to see Tottenham do well," he said at a press conference with England (via 90min).

"It's great to see. I think I've said before, the manager is doing great for them with the way they're playing. The fans are right behind the team and it's definitely what they needed after the last few years. I'll always keep an eye on Spurs and the Premier League. There is no other team in the Premier League I would want to win than Tottenham. I have to be respectful to Bayern Munich and of course, the fans know I will always have a soft spot for Spurs – there is no question about that."

Spurs transfer news – Ivan Toney

Tottenham appear unaffected by Kane's departure, much to the surprise of supporters considering his seismic impact over the last decade. However, reports have suggested that they have their eyes on a new striker for 2024. Indeed, Brentford star Ivan Toney is one of the names linked, with Football Insider recently claiming Spurs are in the running as the striker decides to depart his club.

Gabriel Agbonlahor, speaking to talkSPORT, says that if Spurs are "serious" about a potential title challenge this season, they'll go and sign the forward who's been called "unique" by his manager (The Independent).

"No one will be able to afford him, he'll be something silly, £140/150million. But, do Spurs go and get Toney? If Spurs come to January and they're in a title race," he said.

Co-pundit Alan Brazil then replied: "Yeah but what if [Heung-min] Son got injured, touch wood it doesn't happen, or [James] Maddison, what then?

Aerial duels

Offside awareness

Direct free-kicks

Passing

Through balls

Finishing

To which Agbonlahor added: "You've got Richarlison, he can't score, the young lad [Brennan] Johnson will do OK. I think whoever's serious about this title challenge, go and get Toney."

Toney scored 20 league goals for the Bees last season, and is now reportedly being courted by the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea.

Arsenal are keeping close tabs on a defender from overseas, but a reliable journalist has claimed that they could find it difficult to bring him to the Premier League.

What's the latest transfer news at Arsenal?

Despite the summer transfer window now being closed, Edu and Mikel Arteta are assessing their options ahead of January and have already been linked with moves for the likes of Santos striker Marcos Leonardo, Juventus midfielder Adrien Rabiot and Wolves winger Pedro Neto, but they are also progressing with deals in-house.

The Gunners are working on completing business closer to home, where having secured the long-term services of captain Martin Odegaard, Fabrizio Romano has revealed that they are now ready to advance in talks over improved terms for Ben White.

Whilst a deal failed to materialise before September 1st, Sporting CP’s Ousmane Diomande was the subject of an approach from the top flight side in June, and even though they later saw a £30m offer rejected, that hasn’t stopped chiefs from wanting to take a second bite of the cherry for the centre-back at the start of the new year.

Are Arsenal signing Ousmane Diomande?

Speaking to GiveMeSport, Dean Jones, who is a journalist and transfer insider, confirmed that Arsenal are closely monitoring the situation of Diomande, though it's currently unknown whether he would be open to the switch. He said:

“They'll always continue to look at this because they want to make sure that they evolve and they're after the best young talent. Diomande is a player who has helped Sporting go top of the league in Portugal this week, so he's currently so young and playing in a team top of the table and really establishing himself in that setup.

“So he won't just be on Arsenal's radar, he'll be on a few team's radar at the moment and they are being scouted quite a bit over there at Sporting. We know that this is a league and a club that gets targeted a lot by top Premier League sides. So he is definitely somebody that they've got an eye on for now.

“Whether he’d be willing to make that move, I'm not so sure, because he is looking pretty comfortable in a team that are doing very well. But as a long-term target, I can definitely see why Arsenal would want him.”

How tall is Ousmane Diomande?

Standing at 6 foot 2, Diomande is an absolute rock and provides an excellent physical presence at the heart of a backline, something which he’s already shown following his impressive start to the new season at Sporting CP.

The Prosport client, who is still just 19 years of age, has won ten tackles so far over the course of the current campaign which is the joint best in his squad, via FBRef, not to mention that he’s also averaging 2.1 aerial wins per game in Liga Portugal.

Diomande, who has been dubbed an “Ivorian Jewel” and "one of the most exciting CB prospects in Europe" by football talent scout Jacek Kulig, even has a positive impact at the opposite end of the pitch having posted four contributions (three goals and one assist) in 25 appearances since joining, so this is a deal that would make sense to pursue for such a well-rounded young player.

Arsenal continued their unbeaten start to the season on Sunday afternoon but once the full time whistle blew in the north London derby, it didn't feel like that. In fact, it felt like a defeat.

Fans, players and coaching staff alike were left dejected having only taken one point from their game with Spurs.

The Gunners were electrifying in the opening half an hour of the game but would only come away from proceedings with a 2-2 draw.

Bukayo Saka's deflected effort, later adjudged to have been an own goal by Cristian Romero opened proceedings before Heung-min Son steered home from close range as the break was approaching.

Saka was again at the heart of proceedings in the second half, firing home a penalty after the aforementioned Romero was involved again, this time being penalised for a handball.

However, Son once again stepped up when it mattered as just moments later Ange Postecoglou's rejuvenated outfit equalised for a second time.

For Mikel Arteta, it was a hugely costly error from Jorginho, a substitute for the injured Declan Rice, that was the deciding moment.

What happened to Declan Rice against Spurs?

The £105m summer signing has been nothing short of phenomenal this term, proving himself to be a real ball-winning monster in the middle of the park.

His ability to make a recovery is second to very few, so when he didn't appear for the second half, alarm bells rang.

Surely Arteta wasn't bringing off the club's record signing at half time in their most important game of the season? It turns out there was a reason.

Rice was restricted to the bench due to a calf problem that had to be strapped up. The hope is that he won't be on the sidelines for an extended period.

Indeed, the club's injury troubles are beginning to mount now. Rice's midfield colleague in Thomas Partey has been out for a few weeks, while Gabriel Martinelli hobbled off a week ago against Everton and Leandro Trossard sustained an injury in training.

What did Jorginho do wrong against Spurs?

The injury blow to Rice was alarming but had he stayed on the pitch, it's likely Arsenal would be walking away from the contest with all three points.

Saka had only just put Arteta's side in front for a second time before straight from kick-off, Jorginho lost the ball to James Maddison.

The Italian got the ball caught under his feet and as he tried to play out, was robbed of possession.

Only William Saliba was left behind the former Chelsea star, but not even a man of his defensive quality could stop the Spurs attack.

Maddison raced through the centre and then played in Son who cooly slotted past David Raya in the Arsenal goal.

The result was perhaps cruel on the Spaniard who had made a remarkable save, straight from the David Seaman textbook in the first half, to deny Brennan Johnson.

Arteta was quick to rush to the defence of his January signing after the game, suggesting he still loved Jorginho, but there will be few fans feeling the same affection.

Filling in for Rice is never going to be an easy task. As soon as he went off the lack of physicality and indeed the alarming space in the middle of the pitch was laid bare.

The £110k-per-week midfielder tried his best to get on the ball, making 38 touches, just four fewer than the ball-playing Raya despite 45 fewer minutes on the pitch.

That said, he could only win 50% of his defensive duels. Rice, by comparison, didn't have his best game in that regard with a 60% win rate, but his mere presence did enough to provoke Maddison into playing a deeper role. He had no such difficulty against Jorginho, as he pushed forward more often, notably for the second equaliser.

One Arsenal journalist, Connor Humm, even went as far as to describe his performance as a "disaster".

That was rather apt for a shoddy performance in which Jorginho truly struggled with the pace of the game. Against a side who enjoy less possession, the Italy international will be no problem at all. However, in this type of match, his lack of energy was and will be a huge concern.

تعرض منتخب بولندا للهزيمة الثانية على التوالي، في إطار منافسات بطولة كأس أمم أوروبا، مساء اليوم الجمعة وذلك أمام النمسا.

واستضاف “الملعب الأولمبي” في برلين مباراة المنتخبين في إطار منافسات الجولة الثانية من دور مجموعات يورو 2024، حيث خسرت بولندا بثلاثة أهداف مقابل هدف. أهداف مباراة النمسا وبولندا اليوم في يورو 2024

كانت النمسا قد تقدمت بهدف في الدقيقة التاسعة من عمر الشوط الأول، عن طريق تراونر الذي سجل رأسية رائعة في شباك تشيزني.

واستمر تفوق منتخب النمسا، على صعيد النتيجة، حتى الدقيقة 30 حيث تمكن بياتيك من تسجيل هدف التعادل للمنتخب البولندي.

ودخل النجم روبرت ليفاندوفسكي كبديل في المباراة، لصالح منتخب بولندا، في الدقيقة 60، وبعدها بـ4 دقائق تحصل على بطاقة صفراء.

وفي الدقيقة 67، نجح منتخب النمسا في التقدم من جديد بعدما سجل بومجارتنر الهدف الثاني.

وعزز منتخب النمسا تفوقه بعدما حصل على ضربة جزاء، في الدقيقة 78، عقب تعرض سابيتزر للعرقلة من قِبل الحارس تشيزني، وظفر الأخير بطاقة صفراء.

ونفذ لاعب النمسا، أرناوتوفيتش، ضربة جزاء منتخب بلده بنجاح ليحولها إلى هدف ثالث.

بتلك النتيجة، ارتفع رصيد منتخب النمسا إلى 3 نقاط في المركز الثاني في المجموعة الرابعة، في حين تتذيل بولندا بدون نقاط، مع العلم أنها ستواجه فرنسا في مباراة مصيرية في الجولة الأخيرة.

ويتأهل أصحاب المركز الأول والثاني من المجموعات الستة، إلى جانب أفضل 4 من أصحاب المركز الثالث.

As the Manchester United pursuit of Sofyan Amrabat heats up on transfer deadline day, director of football negotiations Matt Hargreaves has reportedly flown to Italy.

What is the latest transfer news on Man United and Sofyan Amrabat?

The Red Devils have been chasing the Fiorentina midfielder for some time but don't appear to be able to pay full price for the player.

Indeed, as per The Times, Man United "cannot afford to meet Fiorentina’s £30 million asking price" but they are trying to loan the Morocco international instead.

That same report notes how Amrabat himself doesn't even know what the future holds as he said this week: “If I go away, I don’t know . . . maybe I could stay."

As per The Athletic, the Premier League outfit did make a €2m (£1.7m) loan bid but it was unsurprisingly turned down by Fiorentina.

Read the latest Man United transfer news HERE…

But in a fresh update, shared by David Ornstein on Twitter, "Manchester United director of football negotiations Matt Hargreaves has flown to Italy" to try and complete a deal. However, there is "no agreement" between the clubs for the 27-year-old as of yet.

Interestingly enough, there were reports in the Manchester Evening News about a private jet which has been booked from Florence to arrive at Manchester Airport on Friday afternoon at 12.52pm (UK time).

That article also noted that: "United have not denied the possibility they have arranged the private jet".

And while, after Ornstein's latest update, it might seem unlikely that another flight would be booked quite so soon after Hargreaves' has arrived in Italy, as it is a private flight, it is possible the scheduled time could be pushed back to allow for protracted negotiations.

Now, in a further update from Fabrizio Romano, the player is "on his way in order to undergo medical tests as new Man Utd player after agreement reached."

How many goals has Sofyan Amrabat scored?

As per The Athletic, Hargreaves is a former executive at Adidas and was only appointed to his role at United in March, starting work this summer. So this will be one of the first major deals he would have been involved with for the club.

With that in mind, it will be interesting to see if he returns to Manchester alone, or if he can successfully complete a loan deal for the 27-year-old midfielder.

In Amrabat, United certainly won't be getting an attacking player. After all, in 107 games at his current club, he has scored just one goal, while also picking up only one assist. In fact, across his entire senior club career, he has only netted five times having made 228 appearances for four different teams.

However, the Red Devils should be landing a pretty feisty defensive midfielder if they can get this deal across the line. Indeed, during the 2022 World Cup, Moroccan journalist Amine El Amri called the player a "raging bull" when speaking to TalkSPORT.

"Sofyan Amrabat is a great footballer in addition to being a raging bull," they said. "I’m trying to be as objective as I can, but I think he’s been the best midfielder in this World Cup.

“I have nothing but respect for guys like Luka Modric, Marcelo Brozovic and Rodrigo De Paul and many others, but I think he’s been absolutely the best player in midfield in this World Cup.”

MatériaMais Notícias

Diferente de outras oportunidades onde o técnico Renato Portaluppi costuma utilizar de ironias e afirmações de exaltação ao elenco do Grêmio, o treinador pareceu profundamente incomodado e usou a entrevista coletiva após a vitória por 1 a 0 no Gre-Nal da última quarta-feira (23) para fazer um verdadeiro desabafo.

Para ele, as análises prévias que foram feitas sobre a tônica do confronto no Beira-Rio pela Libertadores foram unicamente passionais, indicando uma torcida mais favorável ao rival do que necessariamente considerando os anos vitoriosos do plantel.

Renato ainda foi além, dizendo que era necessário respeitar os atletas e que, no que dependesse dele, o Inter seguiria tendo dificuldades em superar o Grêmio, algo que não acontece há 10 encontros consecutivos:

-Quem manda aqui no Rio Grande do Sul é o Grêmio há quatro anos. Agradeço às manchetes para o grupo mostrar o valor dele. Não fiquem com vergonha, repitam. Abram o paletó e mostrem a camisa do Inter por baixo. O sofrimento é grande, vão continuar sofrendo, pode ter certeza disso.

-Algumas pessoas da imprensa do Rio Grande do Sul precisam ser mais educadas. Os jogadores são seres humanos. O Grêmio manda no Estado há quatro anos e parece que é o contrário. Está invicto há 10 Gre-Nais. Não está ótimo, mas não está do jeito que querem colocar. O que falar do rival que está há quatro anos sem ganhar nada?Se sofrem há quatro anos, o problema é de vocês. Agradeço às manchetes que (o Inter) ia amassar, ia atropelar a gente. (Os jornalistas) Têm que colocar a camisa que está amassada no armário. Mais repeito. Temos um grupo vencedor – agregou Renato.

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AFP

Vidarbha’s extraordinary resolve and single-mindedness put them within inches of their maiden Ranji Trophy final, as their classic against Karnataka headed towards a stunning conclusion. With unshakeable confidence, supreme skill and tremendous discipline, Vidarbha’s pacers brought Karnataka’s bullish batting order to its knees to all but knock out the eight-time champions on the fourth day at Eden Gardens. At stumps, Karnataka were seven down in pursuit of 198, still requiring an improbable 87 runs.And it was Rajneesh Gurbani, Vidarbha’s find of the season, who once again ripped through Karnataka. Siddhesh Neral’s double-strike had given Vidarbha an opening, but Gurbani pushed the door wide open. He ran through the heart of Karnataka’s middle order with 4 for 35 that included the game-changing scalps of Karun Nair and CM Gautam.Not once did Karnataka look in control of the chase: an unprecedented instance for a team that has racked up totals of over 400 six times in eight matches this season. Perhaps critically, Karnataka made that one mistake that Vidarbha were wise to avoid when they batted, by going into extreme caution after the loss of early wickets, at one point scoring a solitary run in 27 balls.Throughout, Karnataka’s batsmen were found wanting on several fronts, not covering the line of the delivery, failing to get entirely forward and not getting to the pitch. Such lapses made an appearance early, when Mayank Agarwal, the season’s highest run-scorer, fell to Umesh Yadav’s electric reflexes in the third over. Having closed the face of his bat to one that had straightened, Agarwal popped a leading edge to Umesh’s right, who got down in an instant and stuck out his right hand.Dega Nischal, Karnataka’s promising No. 3, lived a charmed life. First, Akshay Wadkar reprieved him by fluffing a simple catch down the leg side. Nischal survived a second time when Paschim Pathak turned down a huge appeal for leg before when Gurbani cut one back into the batsman and seemed to have him plumb in front of middle and leg.Even R Samarth, whose front-foot game is characterised by assuredness, pushed and prodded tentatively on numerous occasions. It cost him when a skiddy inswinger from Neral hit him dead in front of middle stump. Five balls later, Nischal played a shot he will rue for a long time: pushing at a sixth-stump delivery and edging to the keeper.With Karnataka three down for 40, Faiz Fazal brought back his premier paceman, Umesh. The one trick Fazal missed was in hesitating to place a third slip, perhaps guarding himself against the low target to defend. The flaw was exposed when Umesh found Karun Nair’s outside edge that went past second slip and gully. Fazal immediately closed the gap, but Umesh made a fuller offering on the pads next ball. He continued to be erratic and was easily the least impressive of Vidarbha’s pacers.Usually firm-footed, Nair continued to live on outside edges and streaky boundaries. Ill-judged singles and edges became routine as Karnataka showed signs of cracking under pressure. But one way or the other, Nair and Gautam, like they did in the first innings, began to steady Karnataka and took them to 69 for 3 at the tea break.The post-tea passage began in an all-too-familiar manner, Gautam finding an edged four through third man, before Nair crunched an imperious cover-drive off Neral. And then, Gurbani took centrestage.In his first over after tea, Gurbani had Nair poking at one that jagged off the seam and took the edge. Stuart Binny was trapped on his second ball in front of middle with one that shaped into him. Pathak adjudged Gautam to have tickled one to the keeper too, much to the disappointment of the batsman. Having managed bounce, swing in the air and movement off the deck, Gurbani then found reverse swing that had K Gowtham playing all over a delivery that was angled into him, being adjudged lbw for 1. With each wicket that he took, Gurbani’s celebrations grew increasingly ecstatic, and Karnataka’s shoulders sagged as they slipped from 81 for 3 to 104 for 7.Despite Gurbani’s heroics, the contributions of Aditya Sarwate weren’t forgotten. Karnataka soared early in the day, taking out Vidarbha’s overnight batsmen Ganesh Satish and Akshay Wadkar in the morning.Wadkar and Satish had begun well, smartly extending Vidarbha’s lead through singles. But an incisive spell from Binny, who kept probing batsmen and inviting errors, turned the heat on Vidarbha. He struck first ball after his introduction, and it was to a poor shot from Wadkar, who followed the line loosely of an away-going delivery.Satish, Vidarbha’s biggest hope, was bounced out by a fiery Abhimanyu Mithun, and when Akshay Wakhare played at a Binny outswinger, Vidarbha had lost three wickets for six runs.Karnataka did just about everything right on the field, with Mithun’s pace, Binny’s swing, Vinay’s accuracy, some outstanding slip catching, and tidy ground fielding. But Sarwate stalled their charge with a fighting half-century and added 68 runs for the last two wickets. With the field spread out – at one point, Karnataka had as many as six fielders at the boundary – he capitalised by pinching singles.Though he farmed the strike for the most part, the big shots ensued when he turned it over. Umesh played the biggest of them all when he shoveled Binny over wide long-on. A crunching late cut behind square gave Sarwate his fifty as every run, every four, even a tidy forward defence drew rousing cheers from the Vidarbha dressing room as they continued to believe. By the end of it all, it had stood them in good stead.