Bengaluru, Oct 19 After Manvanth Kumar’s brilliant maiden first-class hundred, Karnataka bowlers rocked Saurashtra top-order batters to gain the upper hand on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Group B match here on Monday.
Riding on Manvanth’s composed 135 off 214 balls, Karnataka piled on 342 all out, and then reduced Saurashtra to 164 for four at close.
The visitors are now trailing by 178 runs.
Manvanth, overnight 86, helped Karnataka stay steady on Day 2 too after starting from 281 for eight. The tall left-hander showed impressive footwork throughout his innings.
The 22-year-old danced down the track to send experienced Jaydev Unadkat for a six over covers, and then played a short-arm whack across the line off the same bowler for another maximum.
His innings was studded with 11 fours and six sixes.
Manvanth reached the three-figure mark off 147 balls when he guided pacer Chetan Sakariya for a boundary through the cordon.
Abhilash Shetty (14 not out, 137 balls) too deserved credit for helping Manvanth raise 146 runs for an astonishing ninth wicket alliance.
Manvanth fell to spinner Parth Bhut, who was Saurashtra’s most successful bowler with five wickets.
Later, Saurashtra began confidently through openers Hetvik Kotak (46) and Harvik Desai (77), who added 110 runs.
But once Desai fell to pacer Vidwath Kaverappa, Karnataka made further inroads into the Saurashtra top-order.
Left-arm pacer Abhilash claimed the scalps of Chirag Jani and Jay Gohil in the 33rd and 35th overs to reduce the visitors to 115 for three.
A few overs later, Kotak fell to pacer Vysakh Vijayakumar as Saurashtra slipped to 128 for four.
But seasoned batters Arpit Vasavada (25 batting) and Prerak Mankad (13 batting) helped them see the day through without further damage.
Brief Scores
=========
At Alur: Karnataka: 342 all out in 111.3 overs (Manvath Kumar 135; Parth Bhut 5/89) vs Saurashtra 164/4 in 53 overs (Harvik Desai 77; Abhilash Shetty 2/26).
At Vijayawada: Hyderabad: 275 & 78/2 in 23 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 49 batting; K Saiteja 2/4) vs Andhra 184 all out in 63 overs (Shaik Rasheed 61; Tanay Thyagarajan 5/63).
At Guwahati: Assam 334 vs Tripura 62 all out in 22.1 overs (Mohit Thakur 3/6, Mukhtar Hussain 3/23) and (following-on) 143/5 in 30 overs (M Murasingh 59 batting, Sentu Sarkar 41 batting; Hridip Deka 2/23).
At Mullanpur: Punjab: 456 all out in 152.5 overs (Uday Saharan 161, Salil Arora 107; Dharmendasinh Jadeja 7/173) vs Chhattisgarh 72/5 in 27 overs (Harpreet Brar 5/21).
(PTI News)
