Thilak Naidu was the undisputed star of the day, setting the Chinnaswamy stadium alight with a breathtaking display of stroke-making that drove Himachal Pradesh to desperation. The 29-year-old’s eighth first-class hundred nearly put to shade Rahul Dravid’s masterly compilation of the previous day as Karnataka relentlessly hunted down their less fancied opponents.
At stumps on day two of the Ranji Trophy Super League Group ‘A’ encounter, Himachal faded away after a promising beginning in their chase of Karnataka’s 452 for nine declared, slumping to 117 for four and facing an arduous climb to safety on a tricky surface against a quality attack.
Quality was on full view for the first three hours of the day as Naidu came to the party in grand style. The right-hander has always been a stylist, pleasing to the eye and blessed with excellent temperament. His cheekiness has sometimes been his undoing; on Friday, there was no stopping him as he took on Himachal’s attack — for want of a better word — and systematically dismantled it.
Flowing strokes
Flowing strokes cascaded off his willow with remarkable regularity throughout his stint. Resuming at 271 for four, Karnataka needed to make a statement of intent early in the piece, and Naidu took it upon himself to speak for his team. A strangely becalmed Yere Goud had the best seat in town — and he often chose to occupy it, too! — as Naidu oscillated between the brilliant and the sublime, peppering his favoured point region with audacious cut-drives that mocked the slowness of the surface.
Himachal commissioned the second new ball first thing in the morning, and that almost certainly played into Naidu’s hands because he loves the ball coming on to the bat. Ashok Thakur and Vikramjeet Malik were treated with casual disdain, while the left-arm over negative line adopted by Vishal Bhatia was tackled with great inventiveness -- the slog-sweep employed often -- as Naidu single-handedly kept the score board racing along.
Goud will perhaps point to the 85-run (139m, 183b) fifth-wicket stand and assert that he carried out his role to perfection, but his contribution to that association was just 21 before Bhatia put him out of his misery. The 25-year-old from Hamirpur will bowl much better and end up with far fewer wickets; his six for 129 off 45 long overs was testimony to his persistence and perseverance more than anything else and for that very reason, he will treasure his eighth first-class five-for.
Goud’s fall ushered in an entertaining 52 minutes as Naidu was joined by B Akhil, happy to feed his senior partner the strike without missing out on scoring opportunities himself. Naidu’s positiveness kept the rate of scoring perfectly acceptable for a side eager to do the running; in the 150 minutes to lunch, Naidu alone accounted for 86 of Karnataka’s 129 runs, off just 94 deliveries with 14 fours and a six. Talk about entertainment!
Post lunch, Karnataka lost wickets in a heap as they looked to up the tempo. Bhatia was the principal beneficiary, picking up Akhil, Sunil Joshi, and finally Naidu. Dropped on nought the previous evening by Himachal skipper Sandeep Sharma, Naidu had another let-off on 96 when his counterpart Maninder Bisla muffed the simplest of stumping chances, but those slices of fortune were no more than he deserved.
A grubber
Malik was the only other Himachal wicket-taker, adding the current Indian captain’s leg-stump with another grubber to go with the former skipper’s off-stump the previous day. Anil Kumble wasn’t too unhappy. After all, his time with the ball was to come!
Himachal got off to a frenetic start through Sandeep and the organised Manish Gupta, who both latched on to NC Aiyappa. The latter had the last laugh, having Sandeep well caught at first slip by Dravid on the stroke of tea, but Gupta held his own as Himachal eyed a respectable close-of-play total.
Then, as happens with less experienced side, they lost three for 14 in 44 deliveries as Kumble and Joshi came into play. Kumble had numerous leg-before shouts, some of them very well justified, turned down. Chomping at the bit, he will be as much a handful on the morrow as the wily Joshi. Himachal better watch out!

SCORE BOARD

 KARNATAKA (I Innings, O/n: 271/4): Barrington Rowland c Bisla b Malik 7 (31m, 25b, 1x4), KB Pawan b Bhatia 56 (207m, 167b, 7x4, 1x6), Rahul Dravid b Malik 121 (251m, 180b, 12x4, 4x6), C Raghu c Mukesh b Bhatia 58 (115m, 101b, 8x4), Yere Goud c Dogra b Bhatia 23 (177m, 124b, 1x4), Thilak Naidu b Bhatia 105 (231m, 137b, 16x4, 1x6), B Akhil c & b Bhatia 22 (52m, 43b, 2x4), Sunil Joshi c Thakur b Bhatia 14 (18m, 20b, 2x4), Anil Kumble b Malik 1 (13m, 14b), R Vinay Kumar (not out) 11 (23m, 15b, 1x6), NC Aiyappa (not out) 6 (18m, 13b, 1x4). Extras (B-15, LB-5, W-1, NB-6) 28. Total (for 9 wkts decl, 139 overs) 452.
Fall of wickets: 1-19 (Rowland), 2-150 (Pawan), 3-242 (Dravid), 4-257 (Raghu), 5-342 (Goud), 6-403 (Akhil), 7-423 (Joshi), 8-427 (Kumble), 9-434 (Naidu).
Bowling: Ashok Thakur 33-5-82-0 (nb-2), Vikramjeet Malik 36-11-103-3 (nb-3), Sangram Singh 4-1-12-0, Sarandeep Singh 19-3-90-0, Vishal Bhatia 45-10-129-6 (nb-1), Mukesh Sharma 1-0-10-0, Sandeep Sharma 1-0-6-0.
HIMACHAL PRADESH (I Innings): Manish Gupta c Naidu b Joshi 42 (121m, 80b, 6x4), Sandeep Sharma c Dravid b Aiyappa 21 (50m, 35b, 4x4), Sangram Singh c Dravid b Kumble 7 (41m, 33b, 1x4), Paras Dogra lbw Vinay 3 (6m, 5b), Ajay Mannu (batting) 16 (64m, 53b, 3x4), Maninder Bisla (batting) 11 (39m, 35b, 1x4). Extras (B-8, LB-4, Penalty-5) 17. Total (for 4 wkts, 40 overs) 117.
Fall of wickets: 1-47 (Sandeep), 2-76 (Sangram), 3-79 (Dogra), 4-90 (Gupta).
Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 10-4-20-1, NC Aiyappa 7-0-29-1, Anil Kumble 11-2-38-1, Sunil Joshi 8-3-8-1, B Akhil 4-3-5-0.