RANJI Karun ton puts Karnataka ahead against Hyderabad
Shimoga (Karnataka), Oct. 26: Karun Nair returned to form with a patient hundred as Karnataka set a stiff target of 380 for Hyderabad on the third day of their group A Ranji Trophy encounter.
Courtesy Nair's 134 off 229 balls with 17 boundaries, Karnataka scored 332 in their second innings ending with an overall lead of 379 runs.
At stumps, Hyderabad were 92 for 2 with Tanmay Agarwal batting on 43. They need another 288 runs on the final day while Karnataka need to take eight wickets.
The day belonged to Nair, who scored his 11th firstclass hundred. The century came after a prolonged bad patch that saw him getting dropped from the Indian team and also have modest returns during India A tours. He used his feet well against spinners to hit boundaries on all parts of the ground and was the last man to be dismissed. GROUP A At Guwahati: Assam 244 & 41/7 (Anureet Singh 3/18) vs Railways 483/7 decl. (Ghosh 109, Bhille 89, Shukla 86, Wakaskar 80, Ashish 50, Chiranjeevi 25, Anureet 25). At Shimoga: Karnataka 183 & 332 (Nair 134, Binny 72, Samarth 29, Hassan 5/88, Bhandari 3/64) vs Hyderabad 136 & 92/2 (Agarwal 43*). At Lucknow: Maharashtra 312 & 256/4 in 76 overs (Tripathi 91, Bawne 58, Motwani 30, Gugale 28, Shaikh 25) vs Uttar Pradesh 271.
GROUP B At Surat: J & K 261 & 130 (Dayal 29, HP Patel 5/49, PP Chawla 4/38) in 34.4 overs lost to Gujarat 455. Points: Gujarat 7, J & K 0. At Ranchi: Haryana 208 & 141/4 in 47 overs (Dagar 64, Paliwal 44*) vs Jharkhand 425/9 decl. At Trivandrum: Kerala 335 & 217/2 in 46 overs (Saxena 102*, Samson Rajasthan 243. 72) vs
GROUP C At Vizianagaram: Andhra 584/5 decl. vs Odisha 294/6 in 102 overs (G.B. Poddar 111, Senapati 91, Samantray 28, Bhatt 3/66). At Mumbai: Mumbai 374 & 85/1 in 22 overs (Shreyas 56) vs Tamil Nadu 450 (Indrajith 152, Yo Mahesh 103*, Washington 69). At Agartala: Tripura 205 & 103 lost to Madhya Pradesh 260 & 52 for no loss in 14.2 overs.
GROUP D At Delhi: HP 364 & 176/9 decl. (Vasisht 44, Dhawan 40, Jaiswal 33, Pathania 3/36, Rahul Singh 3/37) vs Services 215 & 28/1. At Porvorim: Punjab 635 vs Goa 246 & 67/2 in 37 overs f/o (Asnodkar 26, Kamat 26*). At Nagpur: Chhattisgarh 489 vs Vidarbha 331/6 in 101 overs (Fazal 125, Jaffer 50, Ganesh 39, Wagh 38).