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In order to help Karnataka recover from a shaky start and defeat Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy semi-final on Wednesday, captain Mayank Agarwal struck an unbroken century.
When Karnataka was asked to bat, they ran into considerable difficulties, losing half their team for 112 in 40.3 overs.
However, wicketkeeper Srinivas Sharath (58 not out) and opener Agarwal (110 not out) held one end together and stabilised the score with an undefeated 117-run partnership for the sixth wicket.
Before the umpires halted play on the first day, Karnataka had scored its runs off 87 overs.
Agarwal’s patient innings took 246 balls, during which he hit 11 boundaries and a six, while Sharath’s unbroken innings required 143 deliveries, during which he smashed four fours.
Kushang Patel, a right-arm medium bowler, claimed two wickets, while Chetan Sakariya and Prerak Mankad each dismissed one Karnataka batter. Run out caused the other wicket to be lost.
Ravikumar Samarth, the team’s opener, was caught by Vishvaraj Jadeja off Patel’s bowling in the sixth over, giving Karnataka a rough start.
Devdutt Padikkal, the new man, didn’t last long after being caught by Sheldon Jackson after being struck by Sakariya’s first delivery of the ninth over.
Before Nikin Jose (18) stole a Patel delivery from Harvik Desai behind the stumps in the 29th over, Agarwal and Jose had added 47 runs for the next wicket.
Manish Pandey, Mankad’s scalp, and Shreyas Gopal (15), a run out victim, didn’t do much to disturb the scorers as Karnataka slipped to 112 for 5.
Karnataka: 229 for 5 in 87 overs (Mayank Agarwal 110 batting, Srinivas Sharath 58 batting; Kushang Patel 2/64).
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