Elegant: Padikkal introduced up his third First Class hundred with a dominating knock of 193.
| Photo Credit: Kiran Bakale
Karnataka drove home the advantage on day two of its Ranji Trophy encounter in opposition to Punjab, raking up a 309-run first-innings lead at the KSCA Rajnagar Stadium right here on Saturday.
From an in a single day 142 for 3, Devdutt Padikkal and Manish Pandey all however batted the customer out of the recreation, with their nascent 32-run affiliation at stumps on day one swelling to a mammoth 234.
Of these, 152 runs got here on the second morning at almost 5 an over. Padikkal, beginning on 80, coasted alongside merrily, bringing up his third First Class hundred (193, 216b, 24×4, 4×6) with an attractive pushed boundary previous speedster Baltej Singh.
After reaching the three-figure mark, the 23-year-old Padikkal, who had till then performed text-book cricket, turned expansive. Offie Naman Dhir was dispatched down the floor earlier than part-time tweaker Abhishek Sharma was smashed for back-to-back maximums, over long-on and deep square-leg.
At the different finish, Manish was let off on 22 when a mix-up between wicket-keeper Gitansh Khera and the first-slip fielder value Baltej a wicket. The former Karnataka skipper capitalised by notching up his twenty fourth First Class ton (118, 165b, 13×4, 3×6).
Class: Pandey was significantly aggressive in opposition to the spinners in his knock of 118.
| Photo Credit:
Kiran Bakale
Initially, Manish was not at his regular free-stroking finest, taking 89 balls to attain his fifty. The century, nonetheless, took simply 53 extra deliveries. Left-arm spinner Prerit Dutta and leggie Mayank Markande suffered the worst, being hit for a mixed 64 runs from 62 balls. The six over Dutta‘s head to get to 99 was Manish’s stand-out shot.
Padikkal and Manish fell in the post-lunch session, with the former caught at deep mid-wicket off Dutta after his career-best knock and the latter at second slip off Arshdeep Singh. But Sharath Srinivas (55 batting, 158b, 5×4) and Shubhang Hegde (27, 77b, 2×4) — aided by some abysmal fielding — ensured that Punjab wouldn’t actually have a foot in the door.
The scores:
Punjab – 1st innings: 152.
Karnataka – 1st innings: R. Samarth b Dutta 38, Mayank Agarwal c Dhir b Arshdeep 0, Devdutt Padikkal c Baltej b Dutta 193, Nikin Jose lbw b Dhir 8, Manish Pandey c Abhishek b Arshdeep 118, Sharath Srinivas (batting) 55, Shubhang Hegde c Mandeep b Dhir 27, V. Vyshak (batting) 15.
Extras (lb-6, nb-1): 7; Total (for six wkts. in 123 overs): 461.
Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-92, 3-110, 4-344, 5-382, 6-441.
Punjab bowling: Baltej 21-3-56-0, Arshdeep 21-1-71-2, Kaul 18-0-79-0, Dutta 22-1-84-2, Dhir 12-1-46-2, Markande 20-1-73-0, Abhishek 9-0-46-0.
