Riding on Sreenath Aravind’s superb bowling and a quickfire century by Robin Uthappa, Karnataka on Sunday gained an upper hand as they reduced Rajasthan to 42/3, chasing 358-run target, at the end of
Riding on Sreenath Aravind’s superb bowling and a quickfire century by Robin Uthappa, Karnataka on Sunday gained an upper hand as they reduced Rajasthan to 42/3, chasing 358-run target, at the end of third day’s play of their Group A Ranji Trophy match here.
On the fourth and final day on Monday, Rajasthan face an uphill task as they need 316 runs with seven wickets in hand.
Earlier on the day, Karnataka managed to take a slight 32-run first essay lead after bundling out Rajasthan for 241 in their opening innings.
Rajasthan resumed the day on 219 for seven, in reply to Karnataka’s first innings total of 281, but the hosts failed to topple the opponents’ score as Aravind (3/42) and R Vinay Kumar (3/42) polished off the tail quickly.
In their second innings, Karnataka rode on Uthappa’s 128-ball 160, studded with 25 fours and four sixes, to post 318/5 declared.
Abhishek Reddy (69), CM Gautam (36 not out) and Stuart Binny (29) also chipped in with crucial runs to set Rajasthan a huge target of 358 runs.
In their chase, Rajasthan got off to a disastrous start, losing three wickets in the span of just 38 runs with Aravind (2/20) claiming two of the three scalps.
At stumps, opener Pranay Shrama was batting on 24 and Tanveer-Ul-Haq was yet to open his account.
Meanwhile, fast bowler Aswin Crist registered his best bowling figures in first class career to help Tamil Nadu enforce follow-on on Railways on Sunday.
After posting 328 in their first innings, Tamil Nadu rode on Aswin Crist’s (6/60) brilliant bowling to bundle out Railways for 164 after the hosts resumed at the overnight score of 129 for seven.
Besides Aswin Crist, J. Kousik also chipped in with three wickets giving away just nine runs. But following on, Railways batsmen produced a much better account of themselves in the second essay to take the hosts to 200/4 at stumps at the Karni Singh Stadium.
Opener V. Cheluvaraj, who scored 66 in the first innings, carried on his good form and remained unbeaten on 80 that came off 198 balls and was studded with 14 boundaries. Scores Group A: Karnataka 281 & 318/5 decl. (Uthappa 160, Reddy 69) vs Rajasthan 242 & 42/3. Vidarbha 332 & 149 (Ubarhande 47, Darekar 5/78) vs Maharashtra 237. Delhi 311 vs Odisha 195/4 (Behera 62, Sarangi 76*). Bengal 329 & 146/7 (Hooda 4/39)vs Haryana 225.
Group B: UP 273 & 257 (Umang 66, Chawla 62*, Axar 5.90) beat Gujarat 100 & 275. Madhya Pradesh 269 & 113/2 (Patidar 29*) vs Baroda 296 (Waghmode 68, Pathan 55, Hooda 51, Hirwani 5/60). Tamil Nadu 328 vs Railways 164 (Cheluvaraj 63*, Crist 6/60, Kousik 3/8) & 200/4 (f/o) (Cheluvaraj 80*, Rawat 77*).
