Bengaluru: If Manvanth Kumar led Karnataka’s fightback on the opening day, Abhilash Shetty, who had defied Saurashtra’s attack for a whopping 137 balls batting at No. 10, put life back into hosts’s defence of their first innings total on Monday.
Such resistances always result in special personal accomplishments and rivetting passage of play — and there was a first first-class hundred, a five-wicket haul, top-order aggression and quality seam bowling.
After Manvanth, overnight 86 n.o., duely completed his century (135, 214b, 14×4, 6×6) to power Karnataka to 342 all out after resuming at 281/8, it was Abhilash’s turn to turn things around.
His seven-over burst (7-1-16-2) breathed life back into home as Saurashtra, after a lively start, crawled to 164/4 in 53 overs, trailing Karnataka by 178 runs. The left-arm seamer finished the day with figures of 2/26 in 12.5 overs.
As Karnataka started to extract bit of reverse swing late in the day, Arpit Vasavada (25 n.o.) and Prerak Mankad (13 n.o.), survived a few close shaves and saw the visitors through to the end.
Karnataka will sweat on Vidwath Kaverappa’s (1/31) fitness after he went down in his follow-through and was seen grimacing in pain, clutching his right calf.
Before the turnaround, Saurashtra were collecting runs without trouble thanks to an aggressive fifty from opener Harvik Desai (77, 78b, 4×11).
The hosts struggled to extract movement off the surface with the new ball, with Vyshak Vijaykumar (1/47) and Vidwath toiling hard without much reward, bowling five and six over first spells, respectively.
Batting became easier as the session progressed, with both Harvik and Hetvik Kotak (46, 127b) looking ominous.
Harvik seemed more at ease, driving and cutting Manvanth Kumar (0/29) to the fence. Kotak then joined the party with a beautiful flick for four off Vyshak, who gave away 33 runs in his first seven overs.
Vidwath finally drew a rare mistake off Harvik in the 30th over, who edged it to keeper Shrijith K L while trying to pull the ball.
Abhilash then brought a flat deck to life when he dismissed Chirag Jani (1, 11b) with a ball that angled in, hit his bat, pad and stumps.
The left-arm pacer then picked up Jay Gohil (0) as Manvanth pulled off a brilliant catch at fine leg.
Earlier, Manvanth began the morning session with caution, letting a few go, but rarely allowed a half-volley go unpunished. And you could tell he was hungry for a big one.
It didn’t start confidently for Abhilash, who survived some nervy moments, including a loud leg-before shout. The No. 10, however, had one more spell of fight in him.
The 22-year-old Manvanth, responded with boundaries square of the wicket and in the V as shouts of “channagide” (looking good) grew louder from the dressing room.
He was given a reprieve on 94 by the wicketkeeper Harvik, but it was just a minor blip in a knock oozing composure and class. Luck favoured Manvanth as he registered his maiden first-class hundred off 147 balls with a thick outside edge flying to the boundary past the slip cordon.
The partnership was ultimately worth 146 as Manvanth was caught at deep mid-wicket when he miscued one.
Parth Bhut (5/89) completed a five-for as Vidwath was the last man to fall, with Chetan Sakariya taking a good catch running behind from mid-off.
SCOREBOARD KARNATAKA (I Innings O/n: 281/8): Rohan Patil lbw Unadkat 6 (18b 1×4) Mayank Agarwal lbw Unadkat 42 (83b 4×4 1×6) Vyshak Vijaykumar b Sakariya 1 (5b) K V Aneesh c Desai b Sakariya 59 (96b 4×8) Karun Nair c Kotak b Bhut 46 (57b 9×4) Aneeshwar Gautam 4 (2b 1×4) Shrijith KL lbw Bhut 21 (35b 4×4) Shreyas Gopal c Gajjar b Bhut 3 (11b) Manvanth Kumar c Jadeja b Bhut 135 (214b 11×4 6×6) Abhilash Shetty (not out) 14 (137b 1×4) Vidwath Kaverappa c Sakariya b Bhut 1 (11b). Extras (LB-9 W-1) 10. TOTAL (all out 111.3 overs) 342. Fall of wickets: 1-12 2-13 3-111 4-131 5-140 6-183 7-187 8-194 9-340. Bowling: Jaydev Unadkat 24-3-61-3 Chetan Sakariya 23-3-67-2 Ankur Panwar 11-2-32-0 Chirag Jani 8-0-45-0 Parth Bhut 28.3-4-89-5 Prerak Mankad 15-6-30-0 Sammar Gajjar 2-0-9-0. SAURASHTRA (I Innings): Hetvik Kotak c Aneeshwar b Vyshak 46 (127b 5×4) Harvik Desai c Shrijith b Vidwath 77 (78b 11×4 1×6) Chirag Jani b Abhilash 1 (11b) Jay Gohil c Manvanth b Abhilash 0 (7b) Arpit Vasavada (batting) 25 (52b 3×4) Prerak Mankad (batting) 13 (43b 2×4). Extras (W-2) 2. TOTAL (for 4 wkts 53 overs) 164. Fall of wickets: 1-110 2-113 3-115 4-128. Bowling: Vidwath Kaverappa 12.1-4-31-1 Vyshak Vijaykumar 11-2-47-1 Abhilash Shetty 12.5-3-26-2 Manvanth Kumar 9-1-29-0 Shreyas Gopal 7-0-26-0 Karun Nair 1-0-5-0 Other Group B brief scores: At Vijayawada: Hyderabad: 275 all & 78/2 in 23 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 49; Kavuri Saiteja 2-4) vs Andhra (O/n: 9/0): 184 all out in 63 overs (Shaik Rasheed 61 Ricky Bhui 28 Seeram Rahul 27 Tripurana Vijay 25; Tanay Thyagarajan 5-63 Aniketh Reddy 2-60) At New Chandigarh: Punjab: (O/n: 269/4): 456 all out in 152.5 (Vihaan Malhotra 40 Uday Saharan 161 Prabhsimran Singh 62 Sahil Arora 107 Harpreet Brar 27 Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 7-173 Ajay Mandal 2-98) vs Chhattisgarh: 72/5 in 27 overs (Harpreet Brar 5-21). At Guwahati: Assam (O/n: 228/6): 334 all out in 111.1 overs (Nibir Deka 34 Rishav Das 37 Sibsankar Roy 54 Sumit Ghadigaonkar 49 Swarupam Purkayastha 69 Roshan Alam 36; Manisankar Murasingh 3-55 Abhijit Sarkar 2-57 Sandip Sarkar 4-76) vs Tripura: 62 all out (Mukhtar Hussain 3-23 Hridip Deka 2-13 Mohit Thakur 3-6 Swarupam Purkayastha 2-12) & (F/o): 143/5 in 30 overs (Sridam Paul 31 Sentu Sarkar 41 Manisankar Murasingh 59)