GROUP b
Vijayawada, Oct 11: Ravichandran Smaran underlined his red-ball proficiency with a solid 126, placing Karnataka in command against Andhra on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match here on Sunday.
Smaran’s eighth first-class hundred led Karnataka to 274 all out from the depths of 22 for four.The last year’s runners-up then reduced the home side to 16 for two at close to stay ahead by 258 runs.At stumps, Shaik Rasheed and Abhishek Reddy were batting.The India batters in Karnataka’s line-up – KL Rahul, Karun Nair and Mayank Agarwal – failed to get going but Smaran stood up at the right time.The 23-year-old Karnataka skipper shared a 111-run stand for the fifth wicket with stumper KL Shrijith (58, 82b).Left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar (3/69) was the most successful bowler for Andhra.
Brief scores
At Vijayawada: Karnataka: 274 all out in 82.2 overs (R Smaran 126, KL Shrijith 58, Madhav Bajaj 33; Saurabh Kumar 3/69) vs Andhra: 16/2 in 5 overs.At Rajkot: Saurashtra: 308/4 in 90 overs (Prerak Mankad 92 batting, Ravindra Jadeja 72 batting; Chirag Jani 83; Dev Aditya Singh 3/41) vs Chhattisgarh.At Secunderabad: Tripura: 134 all out in 44 overs (Bikramkumar Das 50; Aniketh Reddy 5/21, Tanay Thyagarajan 3/37) vs Hyderabad: 121/4 in 41 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 48 batting).At Mullanpur: Assam: 68/3 in 23 overs (Denish Das 38 batting; Umesh Yadav 2/18) vs Punjab. The day’s play ended early due to a dust storm and subsequent rain. (PTI)