Ranji Trophy 2019-20: Snake-catcher has a field day as he catches two snakes during Mumbai vs Karnataka game

The Ranji Trophy 2019-20 Round 04 Elite Group A & B encounter between perennial heavyweights Mumbai and Karnataka turned out to be a one-sided affair with the Vijay-Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy winners of the 2019-20 season proceeded to outplay Mumbai in their own den. 

It turned out to be a damp squib as Mumbai’s top-order did not have any answers to the relentlessness of the Karnataka pace-attack. The game may well have been a damp-squib but the consistent appearances of the snakes kept the on-lookers, as well the snake-catcher on the edge of the seat at Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai. It was a visibly busy day for the snake-catcher, and it proved to be a successful one too as he caught, not one, but two snakes on the final day of the game.

The photo of the same was shared by one of the sports journalists from The Hindu- Amol Karhadkar. Karhadkar took to Twitter where he complimented the photo of the snake-catcher with a caption, “The highlight of the day at BKC: The snake-catcher displays his “second catch of the day”. It’s a non-venomous rat snake, btw”

The highlight of the day at BKC: The snake-catcher displays his "second catch of the day". It's a non-venomous rat snake, btw #RanjiTrophy #MUMvKAR pic.twitter.com/3egfNgc34w

— Amol Karhadkar (@karhacter) January 5, 2020

This is not the first time in Ranji Trophy 2019-20

Earlier in the season, Defending champions Vidarbha’s opening encounter against Andhra Pradesh was halted for a brief period when a venomous snake showed up on the field.

Coming back to the Mumbai-Karnataka fixture, the 41-time Ranji Champions top-order woes continue to plague their 2019-20 campaign as they fell to their second consecutive defeat in the season. Batting first, the home side was knocked over for a poultry 194 with the trio of Abhimanyu Mithun [2-48], V Koushik [3-45] and Ronit More [2-47] wrecking havoc. Karnataka responded with 218 with Ravikumar Samarth top-scoring with 86.

Mumbai lost the services of Prithvi Shaw in their second innings after he suffered an injury while fielding, and once again their top-order had no answer to Karnataka’s fast-bowling unit as Prateek Jain [4-11], Abhimanyu Mithun [3-62] and V Koushik [2-23] triggered yet another collapse, condemning the home side to 149 all-out.

The target of 129 was never going to be an issue and when Devdutt Padikkal [50] and Ravikumar Samarth [34] notched up 78 runs in 17 overs, it looked like Mumbai were heading for a ten-wicket shellacking. However, Shashank Attarde’s four-wicket-haul ensured that wasn’t the case as Karnataka lost five quick wickets before finally achieving the inevitable.