Cricket has forever had the uncanny knack of mocking predictions. In another overwhelming example of the follies of taking anything for granted, Rajasthan turned the form book upside down as they celebrated their most successful day out yet in this season's Ranji Trophy.

Pointless after three games of their Super League Group 'A' campaign, Rajasthan were dealt a severe blow on the eve of their clash against a formidable Karnataka side when their most experienced batsman, Gagan Khoda, was ruled out with viral fever. Already struggling for batting form, most teams would have considered losing their leading run-scorer this season a cruel, crippling twist of fate. Somehow, most unexpectedly, Rajasthan summoned hitherto unrevealed fortitude to finish day one of the four-day clash at an impressive 266 for four.

Admittedly, the Gangotri Glades surface was batsman-friendly, rolling out into a slowish, unthreatening strip after the early juice that produced appreciable bounce was weaned away by the harsh December sun. Neither that, nor a supremely unimpressive stint with the ball or an amateurish display in the field from the six-time former champions, should detract from the quality of batsmanship Rajasthan put on show on Saturday.

Fluent half-century
The 19-year-old Manish Sharma, on his Ranji debut, led the way with a fluent half-century, and Robin Bisht and the more experienced stumper Rohit Jhalani followed suit with undefeated 60s to dispel the widely held belief that Rajasthan were here simply to make up the numbers.

There were two century stands -- for the opening wicket between Manish and Vineet Saxena, and between Bisht and Jhalani for the fifth -- that sandwiched a mid-innings slump which saw three wickets fall for six runs in 41 deliveries either side of lunch.

Gracious hosts
Before and after that little period of dominance, though, Karnataka played the gracious hosts to perfection, offering freebies and repeatedly fumbling in the field, thereby allowing Mohammad Aslam's men to not just make merry but genuinely start to believe that they can corner first-innings honours.

There is no doubting that Manish would have felt the inevitable nerves on the biggest cricketing day of his fledgling career.

To his great credit, the little right-hander from Bundi kept his anxiety and nervousness in great check, helped undoubtedly by the desire of R Vinay Kumar and, to a greater extent NC Aiyappa, to test the bounce.
A string of short deliveries allowed both Manish and Saxena to settle in.  Accorded that luxury, the two right-handers took turns to run Karnataka ragged.

Glorious drives
Manish was the early aggressor with a string of handsome boundaries off Aiyappa, alternating between glorious drives down the ground and crunching cuts whenever the bowler pitched short.

After seven pleasing fours, Manish eased off, and Saxena assumed command. Spin in the shape of Sunil Joshi -- easily the best bowler on view -- was introduced in the 13th over, and by over number 22, it was left-arm spin at both ends as KP Appanna too was pressed into service by Yere Goud. Untroubled, the openers brought up the hundred and looked good for many more when, six minutes before lunch, Joshi earned umpire Deshmukh's nod as he forced Manish to play down the wrong line and struck his back pad.

Back in business
By then, 120 (144m, 221b) had been realised, but as inexplicably happens, one wicket led to another, and a third. Nikhil Doru played tentatively forward to Joshi and saw the ball roll back off his blade on to the stumps, and Aiyappa surprised the well-set Saxena with a lifter that he could only glove to gully. Karnataka were back in business. Or so they thought.

Not even the needless dismissal of Rajesh Bishnoi, tonking C Raghu's third delivery straight down the throat of a stationary wide long-on, stymied the Rajasthan charge.

While Bisht was the rock, immovable and in control, the feisty Jhalani played his strokes with abandon, feeding off the placidity of the track and the repeated indiscretions on the part of the bowlers.

Both men brought up mini-milestones before close, threatening to add handsomely to their 107-run (128m, 201b) association. Alarm bells time, already.