Karnataka 689 for 6 (Padikkal 232, Rahul 141, Smaran 121*, A Rawat 3-132) vs Uttarakhand
Karnataka ground Uttarakhand into the dust in Lucknow by batting through the full 90 overs for the second successive day of their Ranji Trophy semi-final. By stumps on day two, the visitors were 689 for 6, led by Devdutt Padikkal‘s maiden first-class double century, KL Rahul’s 141 on day one, and the emerging R Smaran‘s fifth first-class hundred.
After striking only twice on day one, Uttarakhand managed four wickets on the second day, but continued to suffer on a flat pitch. Apart from the three centuries, there were also fifties for Karnataka from Karun Nair and Kruthik Krishna.
Padikkal, on 148 overnight, kept finding the boundary after passing 150, and raised 200 in the 107th over. It was his second century after being named Karnataka’s captain midway through the season. Uttarakhand heaved a sigh of relief when Padikkal, on a career-best 232, tickled down the leg side off part-timer Lakshya Raichandani in the 118th over.
Aditya Rawat then dismissed Shreyas Gopal for a duck next over, but just when Uttarakhand seemed to be finding a way back, Smaran and Kruthik frustrated them again. Kruthik was the aggressor, taking a special liking to hitting boundaries in the deep-third region.
Their sixth-wicket partnership ended at 123 when another part-timer, Avneesh Sudha, bowled Kruthik for 60. But Smaran carried on, bringing up Karnataka’s 650 with the single that took him to his hundred. He had added for the seventh wicket 81 with Vidyadhar Patil (35*) when play concluded.
Jammu & Kashmir 198 for 5 (Samad 82, Dogra 58, Shami 3-60, Mukesh 2-40) trail Bengal 328 (Gharami 146, Easwaran 49, Nabi 5-87, Sunil 3-41) by 130 runs
A see-saw day in Kalyani ended with Bengal slightly ahead of Jammu & Kashmir after two days of play in their Ranji Trophy semi-final. Sudip Kumar Gharami‘s 146 led the hosts to 328 even as Auqib Nabi starred for J&K again by bagging 5 for 87.
Then Mohammed Shami and Mukesh Kumar reduced J&K to 13 for 3 in their reply. But a counterattack from Abdul Samad and a patient 56 from Paras Dogra brought J&K back on track. The momentum kept swinging, though, when Shami broke the 143-run fourth-wicket stand by dismissing Samad on 82 off 85 balls.
Mukesh then got Dogra, before Abid Mushtaq and Kanhaiya Wadhawan added 42 to take J&K to stumps without further damage. The day ended with J&K at 198 for 5, trailing by 130 runs.
Both Samad and Dogra enjoyed some luck during their stand. Samad was dropped by Habib Gandhi off Mukesh when on 34, while Dogra, on 41, was given out lbw only for replays to show Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal had bowled a no-ball.
Earlier in the day, Bengal suffered a lower-order collapse of 4 for 37, which began when Nabi had Gharami lbw when he had added 10 to his overnight score. Shami became Nabi’s fifth victim, caught at square leg. But Sumanta Gupta and Mukesh frustrated J&K, adding 22 runs for the last wicket, with Sumanta hitting six fours in a 36-ball 39.
