Shivamogga, Oct 27 (UNI) Arjun Tendulkar walked out with Goa wobbling, the scoreboard gasping at 51 for 4, and Karnataka bowlers dictating terms as if the match belonged to them by ancestral right.
But Tendulkar batted like a man who has lived long enough in the long shadow of a famous surname and has decided, quietly but firmly, to bring his own light.
Arjun, the son of cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar, remained unbeaten on 43 at stumps, his partnership of 56 runs with Mohit Redkar (24 not out) halting Karnataka’s advance and injecting life into a match that had seemed to be slipping into predictable submission.
Before this stand, Karnataka’s pace lineup had looked like a well-tuned engine running on the weather’s cold generosity. Vidwath Kaverappa teased the off-stump, Abhilash Shetty struck like a hawk that knows the wind’s every shift. Goa’s top order crumbled accordingly.
But Tendulkar’s presence changed the rhythm. He did not flinch at the bounce, did not chase the movement, and punished the short ones with the quiet certainty of someone who knows that answers are best given without raised voices.
Redkar, at the other end, played the perfect co-conspirator — unhurried, unbothered, unbroken.
Together, they blunted Karnataka’s plans, slowed the pulse of the field, and forced Mayank Agarwal’s men to exhale longer than they expected.
Goa closed the day at 171 for 6 after 77 overs, still trailing by 200, and needing 50 more runs to avoid the follow-on. The day was shortened by weather, by bad light, by fate’s little interruptions — another reminder that cricket, like politics, rarely obeys neat structure.
The tension now sits with Day 4.
Karnataka need the sun, the time, and the breakthroughs.
Goa need patience and nerve.
Tendulkar needs only to continue being himself — which, on this day, was enough to tilt the mood of an entire match.
