Shreyas ton keeps Karnataka on top

Nagpur, Dec. 9: Shreyas Gopal compiled his fourth hundred in first class cricket, an unbeaten 150, as Karnataka piled on a massive first innings total of 570 to take a huge 397run lead against Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal.

The 24-year-old Bengaluru-born leg-spin bowling allrounder faced 274 balls and struck 11 fours to become the lone centurion in the Karnataka first innings that saw four other batsmen cross the 50-run mark, including no. 11 Arvind Sreenath (51), without reaching three figures. BRIEF SCORES

Quarterfinals At Jaipur: Bengal 354 & 177/1 in 73 overs (A.R. Eswaran 93*, Writtick Chatterjee 40*) vs Gujarat 224 in 74.5 overs (B.H. Merai 67, Parthiv Patel 47, Piyush Chawla 43, Ashoke Dinda 3/48, Ishan Porel 3/64, B. Amit 3/53). At Vijayawada: Madhya Pradesh 338 & 47/2 in 18 overs vs Delhi 405 in 119.4 overs (Kunal Chandela 81, Dhruv Shorey 78, Nitish Rana 43, Rishabh Pant 49,

Facing an imposing task of neutralising the deficit and setting a challenging target for Karnataka, 41time winners Mumbai floundered for the second time in the match to close day three of the five-day game at 120 for 3 in 44 overs with Suryakumar Yadav making a fighting, unconquered 55 off 115 balls. Giving Yadav company at close was Akash Parkar (3).

Mumbai, trailing Karnataka by 277 runs with seven wickets in hand, face a Herculean task to set a challenging fourth innings score for eight-time champions.

— PTI 71, Mihir Himmat Singh Hirwani 5/89). At Surat: Vidarbha 246 & 77/1 in 30 overs (F.Y. Fazal 51) vs Kerala 176 in 61.5 overs (Jalaj Saxena 40, R.N. Gurbani 5/38). At Nagpur: Mumbai 173 & 120/3 in 44 overs (Surya Kumar 55*, Gowtham K. 2/30) vs Karnataka 570 in 163.3 overs (Mayank Agarwal 78, Kaunain Abbas 50, C.M. Gautam 79, Shreyas Gopal 150*, Arvind Sreenath 51, Shivan Dube 5/98).