Reigning champions Karnataka had the luxury of a bye into the Ranji Trophy semi finals where they ran into their South Zone rivals Hyderabad. Apart from home advantage, Karnataka were also fortunate enough to win the toss. Thus far all the breaks had gone their way. But things began to unravel swiftly after Hyderabad was invited to make first use of the wicket.

Hyderabad batted through two full days and part of the third before declaring at a humongous 711/8. Rowland Barrington suffered the acute embarrassment of seeing VVS Laxman surge ahead to 353 after squandering a dolly at mid on when he was on 30. He had the chance though to make amends when Karnataka launched their reply. Openers Arun Kumar and Mithun Beerala laid a solid platform and Barrington, who'd by now dropped one place down the order to No.3, arrived at 163/1.

The spin duo of Kanwaljit Singh and Venkatapathy Raju were operating in tandem and he was immediately encircled by a cordon of close in fielders. Barrington was equal to the task and soon enough he stepped out to the pitch of the ball and turned Kanwaljit to the deep midwicket fence. The field began to scatter and the first round was Barrington's. To be sure there were a couple of moments when he looked in some discomfort but he put his head down and refused to get ruffled.

Before the day closed, the 20 year old had brought up his individual fifty off 113 balls with seven boundaries. Karnataka saw out the day at 269/2, just 442 runs adrift of their opponents, and with Barrington and Bharadwaj in fine nick, Bangloreans must have fervently hoped that the age of miracles was not over. On the fourth morning, the home team marched past 300 when Barrington opened the face of his bat and hustled one through the gap between slip and gully for four.

But a sensational one handed take by the still sprightly Mohd. Azharuddin, diving away to his left at second slip, spelt finis to his three hour stay in the middle. Karnataka lost of course and Barrington's 65 (157 balls, 8 fours) may not have atoned in full for that fielding lapse on the first day, but his temperament marked him out as a genuine candidate for higher honours.