Sports
Irani Cup: Karnataka lead by 321 runs
Bengaluru, March 19
Ranji Trophy champions
Karnataka tightened their grip on the five-day Irani Cup game against
the Rest of India by extending their overall lead to 321 runs by stumps
on the third day here on Thursday.
The home team, resuming their
second innings at 39 without loss, was well served by opener Ravikumar
Samarth (81, 159b, 10x4), Karun Nair (80, 123b, 12x4) and Manish Pandey
(73 batting) as they piled up 341 for six.
It was a hard grind
for the Rest of India bowlers who never quite looked like running
through the rival line-up even with Samarth on top, followed by Nair and
Pandey who put on 106 runs for the fifth wicket that helped Karnataka
to consolidate.
Although Rest of India achieved a breakthrough
early in the first session when Mayank Agarwal (28) gloved a catch to
the slips while fending Varun Aaron's short ball, the Karnataka batsmen
who followed batted well enough to deny the Rest bowlers.
Samarth
and Nair proved to be the steadying factors for Karnataka who gradually
took control of the match. Late in the day, the hosts lost two quick
wickets, those of Nair and Shreyas Gopal (0) in consecutive overs. But
there was no reprieve for the visitors as Pandey and skipper R. Vinay
Kumar - both still playing - put on 52 runs for the seventh wicket.
Brief
scores: Karnataka 244 and 341 for 6 in 93 overs (Ravikumar Samarth 81,
Abhishek Reddy 31, Karun Nair 80, Manish Pandey 73 batting, Varun Aaron 2
for 85, Pragyan Ojha 2 for 93) vs Rest of India (1st innings) 264 all
out.