Ranji in brief: General Shreyas Gopal helps Karnataka to get ahead

Gopal scored 40 with the bat. © BCCI

Competition at sight

Once Maharashtra was shot down for 113, Karnataka would have hoped to get them out of the fight. However, three wickets from Satyajeet Bachhav and two from Anupam Sanklecha and Samad Fallah meant that the hosts could only list 186. Shreyas Gopal helped the team take the first innings with 40 minutes after Karnataka was reduced to 109 for 7. The stubs, Maharashtra were 48 for 3, after a very slow start, and still 25 points.

Shivam Dube pocketed a ton, then came back hurting Gujarat with the ball as the first round hunt accelerated in Mumbai. Dube chose two, while Royston Dias took three while Gujarat slipped to 232 for 8 in the relay and he is still trailing by 65.

Biplab Samantray made 89 to take Odisha to 212 against Tripura and help the team maintain a decisive lead of 100 points. Manisankar Murasingh and Abhijit Sarkar pocketed three each before Odisha returned to the match. Tripura was 86 for 2, but slipped to 114 for 5 after Rajesh Mohanty hit three times. Tripura leads by only 40, finishing the day on 130 for 5, and hopes to expand their lead and challenge Odisha.

Early finishes on the cards

Mandeep Singh's 90 goals helped Punjab get their first round of 175 innings on Delhi. In their second run, Vinay Choudhary and Siddharth Kaul again worried the hosts and left them faltering at 106 for six. Delhi is still 69 from the end, all hopes looming in Anuj Rawat.

Naman Ojha, Yash Dubey and Rajat Patidar have spent centuries burying Kerala beneath a mountain of trails. Once they took a 263-point lead, Kuldeep Sen and Avesh Khan struck again to help Madhya Pradesh maintain their dominance. Kerela, in their second try, was 38 years old for 4 and 22,000 again.

Parvez Rasool finished with 8 out of 85, but Jammu and Kashmir continued to fight the services on the second day. In their second round, J & K were reduced to 115 for 6 while Diwesh Pathania ambaded three. Rasool and Co. are still trailing by 42 after services scored 252 in their first innings.

The clash between Haryana and Assam moved at a rapid pace, when the former failed with the bat for the second time of the game. Assam released 310 and then shot Haryana for only 97 with Arup Das pocketing five. Invited to follow, the drummers failed to improve and let the team tickle at 78 for 7 while they were still trailing at 135.

Top hits

Amit Verma scored 154 points while Goa recorded 364 points against Jharkhand. Verma rallied to the lower order to advance the team and received good support from Keenan (41). Jharkhand also had a good start and was 147 for 2 on stumps.

Jaydev Shah was in the lead while his 165 led Saurashtra to 521 against Baroda on the second day. The captain received good support from Dharmendrasinh Jadeja (87), who scored 188 for the seventh box to frustrate the visitors.

Top spells

Rahil Shah and M Mohammed shared nine wickets to bring down Bengal for 189. However, Tamil Nadu was shaken early when Abhinav Mukund was defeated by Ashoke Dinda while they ended the day at 12 for 1 with an advance of 86.

Aniket Choudhary and TM Ul-Haq immobilized Uttar Pradesh as they shared seven wickets and placed Rajasthan at the top. In the pursuit of 311 and over, Uttar Pradesh were reduced to 146 for 7 with Choudhary in sack four. They still follow 165 after the disappointing performances of Suresh Raina, Akshdeep Nath and Rinku Singh.

Plate performance

Karthik Joshi scored 208 undefeated while Rajat Bhatia recorded his second consecutive title while Uttarakhand controlled his match against Arunachal firmly by scoring 470 points for 4. Arunachal led 98 for 2 in his second run and remains at 267 with his opponent in pole position record their fourth consecutive victory.

Ashutosh Aman seized his first loot from five wickets while Sikkim was folded for only 81 in response to Bihar's 288. Their highest score was won by Amosi Rai, drummer # 9, when he was having a bad show. MD Rahmatullah scored 66 points, bringing Bihar up to 150 against 4 for the strains and helped them get a lead of 357 points.

Puneet Bist, Raj Biswa and Gurinder Singh were blocked half a century ago to allow Meghalaya to seal their clash against Manipur. Once Manipur was fired for 211, the fifties helped Meghalaya score 326 points and get a very useful lead in the first run. In response, Manipur scored 125 points for 8 against strains while Gurinder Singh's five-wicket carry left them with only two wickets in hand and a lead of only 10.

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