Ton-up Manish Pandey keeps Karnataka’s hopes alive

When stumps were drawn,tailenders KP Appanna and HS Sharath were batting on four and six,respectively. Pandey and Samarth kept the hopes alive for Karnataka to go for an outright victory after conceding first innings lead to Mumbai.

Karnataka began their second innings badly as they lost make-shift opener Karun Nair and stop-gap number three batsman Shreyas Gopal,cheaply for seven and zero,leaving the hosts tottering at 32 for two.

Mumbai,however,did not capitalise on the upperhand and lost the opportunity to mount pressure and attack Karnataka batsmen,especially Pandey,whose confidence had dipped after scoring just one in the first innings.

“We should have attacked Karnataka batsmen,especially Pandey after the hosts were struggling at 32 for two. We should have had three slips than two,and placed attacking field,” Mumbai Coach Sulakshan Kulkarni said.

Pandey looked in a hurry and cracked a quick-fire century off 147 balls with 13 boundaries and two sixes. Samarth also paced his innings superbly by belting 10 boundaries after facing 111 balls.

After the departure of Samarth,who was trapped leg before off Kaustumbh Pawar,Karnataka could add 111 runs and lost five wickets,four in the final session of the day.

CM Gautam (11) and Stuart Binny (18),made brief appearances and gave useful support to Pandey. The centurion lost his wicket to leg-spinner Vishal Dabholkar,handing a catch to Wasim Jaffer.

For Mumbai,pacers Javed Khan and Saurabh Netrawalkar,and Dabholkar bagged two wickets each,while Shardul Thakur and Pawar picked a wicket apiece.

Earlier,resuming on 217 for seven,Mumbai were all out for 269 runs as they batted for 13.4 overs in the morning for an addition of 52 runs.

Lad (93) added 34 more runs to his overnight 59 before was the last batsman out.

Pacer Sharath added two more wickets to end with figures of five for 57 while Pandey claimed the eighth wicket of the visitors.

Mumbai is looking for an outright victory if they manage to bundle out the hosts quickly tomorrow.

“If we are set a target of 320 runs,we will go for it. 300 is chasable on this slow and low wicket,” Mumbai coach said.

Baroda take overall lead to 296

Baroda today took an upper hand by extending their overall lead to 296 as they reached 207 for six in their second innings at the end of day three in their Ranji Trophy Group B match against Saurashtra in Rajkot on Tuesday.

Despite Saurashtra medium pacer Jaydev Unadkat taking four wickets in Baroda’s second innings,the visitors,who had a crucial 89-run first innings lead,ended the day in a comfortable position.

Maharashtra take upperhand against HP

Middle-order batsman Ankit Bawane struck an unbeaten 138 as hosts Maharashtra dished out a commanding batting display to declare their first innings at 488 for six in reply to Himachal Pradesh’s 228 on the third day of a Group C Ranji Trophy match in Pune on Tuesday.

At stumps,HP were 98 for one in their second essay with Varun Sharma batting on 35 and Paras Dogra on 41.

HP still trail Maharashtra by 162 runs with nine wickets in hand and a full day’s play remaining.

Kerala in sight of victory over Goa

Kerala looked set for victory against Goa in their Ranji Trophy group C match as 15 wickets fell today with bowlers dominating the show at Academy ground in Goa on Tuesday.

Resuming their overnight score of zero without loss,Kerala,who took 31 runs first innings lead,failed to dominate in the second innings as they fell to the guile of the Goan spinners and were all out for 147 in 62.5 overs. They set Goa a target of 179 to win.

Goa’s batsmen fumbled again in the second innings against a disciplined bowling from the visitors and were tottering at 82 for 5 when play ended,still needing 97 to win with five wickets in hand on the final day on Wednesday.