Bengal defeats Karnataka to enter first Ranji final in 13 years
Kolkata: Mukesh Kumar ran through Karnataka's second innings with a career-best six-wicket haul as Bengal hammered their star-studded opponents by 174 runs to enter their first Ranji Trophy final in 13 years here on Tuesday.
The low-profile pacer, who had dismissed India regular K L Rahul in Karnataka's first innings, became the hero in the second essay with his 6/61 as Bengal took less than two hours to dismiss Karnataka on day four.
Resuming their monumental chase of 352 at 98 for three, Karnataka lost their remaining seven wickets for 79 runs in 16.3 overs. The penultimate day's proceedings lasted just 115 minutes after which the hero-of-the-day Mukesh Kumar was seen carried on his shoulders by Akash Deep.
Bengal, who won their previous Ranji title during Sourav Ganguly's debut season way back in 1989-90, had lost to Mumbai by 132 runs in their last final appearance in 2007.
Bengal will face the winners of Gujarat and Saurashtra clash, underway in Rajkot, in the final from March 9 and it will be an away match for them.
Bengal also halted a third treble bid by Karnataka who recently were crowned the domestic one-day (Vijay Hazare Trophy) and T20 (Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy) champions. Karnataka's last treble had come in 2014-15 when they had achieved the feat twice on the trot.
Mukesh Kumar, who had previous best figures of 6/62, looked at his ominous best taking five wickets in just 60 balls with an imperious spell that read 9-4-28-5.
He opened his account in the third over of the day with India batsman Manish Pandey (12) edging it to Shreevats Goswami behind the stumps.
Then in his next over he dismissed K V Siddharth (0) and S Sharath (0) off successive deliveries to snuff out any revival hopes by heavyweights Karnataka.
First the inform Siddharth fell to an away going delivery and was caught by skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran at the slip, and on the next ball Mukesh bolwed an inswinger to trap the wicketkeeper-batsman.
Talented 19-year-old Karnataka batsman Devdutt Padikkal, who was season's leading run-getter in white ball cricket, was the lone crusader as Karnataka battled to avoid a third semifinal defeat in a row.
Padikkal, who came in at No 3 to accommodate Rahul at the top, hit seven elegant boundaries but Mukesh had his say to dismiss the batsman en route to his fourth five-wicket haul from 21 first-class matches.
Krishnappa Gowtham (22) and Abhimanyu Mithun counter attacked Bengal with a quick 24-run stand for the eighth wicket but it only delayed the inevitable with first innings hero Ishan Porel breaking the partnershi.
Gowtham tried to smash Porel's widish delivery over the off-side region, only to be caught by substitute Shreyan Chakraborty.
And what followed was a noble gesture by Bengal's man-of-the-match Anustup Majumdar, who had turned it around for the home side with his unbeaten 149 in the first innings. Put in, Bengal were 67/6 but Majumdar's second successive century took Bengal to a match-winning 312.
Known for his unique celebrations, the 21-year-old Porel, who is the youngest member of the side, was given a shoe-shine polish by 35-year-old Majumdar, the seniormost member showing the camaraderie in the side.
Thereafter it was just a matter of time before Akash Deep (2/6) cleaned up the big-hitting Abhimanyu Mithun (38) to complete the victory.
Ishan Porel, who grabbed a five-wicket haul in the first innings, took 2/58 that included the prized-scalp of Rahul with peach of an inswinger on Monday.
Playing without the suspended pacer Ashok Dinda, their leading wicket taker for last eight seasons, the three-pronged Bengal pace attack once again was up for task, taking all the 20 wickets on offer.
Brief Scores
Bengal 312 and 161. Karnataka 122 and 177; 55.3 overs (Devdutt Paddikkal 62; Mukesh Kumar 6/61). Bengal won by 174 runs.
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Los Angeles county wildfires could be costliest in US history, early estimates say
Los Angeles, Jan 11: The wildfires that erupted this week across Los Angeles County are still raging, but already are projected to be among the costliest natural disasters in US history.
The devastating blazes have killed at least 11 people and incinerated more than 12,000 structures since Tuesday, laying waste to entire neighbourhoods once home to multimillion-dollar properties.
While it's still too early for an accurate tally of the financial toll, the losses so far likely make the wildfires the costliest ever in the US, according to various estimates.
A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather put the damage and economic losses so far between USD 135 billion and USD 150 billion. By comparison, AccuWeather estimated the damage and economic losses caused by Hurricane Helene, which tore across six southeastern states last fall, at USD 225 billion to USD 250 billion.
“This will be the costliest wildfire in California modern history and also very likely the costliest wildfire in US modern history, because of the fires occurring in the densely populated areas around Los Angeles with some of the highest-valued real estate in the country,” said Jonathan Porter, the private firm's chief meteorologist.
AccuWeather factors in a multitude of variables in its estimates, including damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure and vehicles, as well as immediate and long-term health care costs, lost wages and supply chain interruptions.
The insurance broker Aon PLC also said Friday that the LA County wildfires will likely end up being the costliest in US history, although it did not issue an estimate. Aon ranks a wildfire known as the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, in 2018 as the costliest in US history up to now at USD 12.5 billion, adjusted for inflation. The Camp Fire killed 85 people and destroyed about 11,000 homes.
The LA County wildfires, which were fuelled by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds and an extreme drought, remained largely uncontained Saturday. That means the final tally of losses from the blazes is likely to increase, perhaps substantially.
“To put this into perspective, the total damage and economic loss from this wildfire disaster could reach nearly 4 per cent of the annual GDP of the state of California,” AccuWeather's Porter said.
In a report Friday, Moody's also concluded that the wildfires would prove to be the costliest in US history, specifically because they have ripped through densely populated areas with higher-end properties.
While the state is no stranger to major wildfires, they have generally been concentrated in inland areas that are not densely populated. That's led to less destruction per acre, and in damage to less expensive homes, Moody's noted.
That's far from the case this time, with one of the largest conflagrations destroying thousands of properties across the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, home to many Hollywood stars and executives with multimillion-dollar properties. Already, numerous celebrities have lost homes to the fires.
“The scale and intensity of the blazes, combined with their geographic footprint, suggest a staggering price tag, both in terms of the human cost and the economic toll,” Moody's analysts wrote. The report did not include a preliminary cost estimate of the wildfire damage.
It could be several months before a concrete tally of the financial losses from the wildfires will be possible.
“We're in the very early stages of this disaster,” Porter said.
