Karnataka in strong position against UP

Karnataka closed in on a big win as their bowlers complemented the batsmen's strong showing by bundling out Uttar Pradesh for 220, giving the hosts a massive first-innings lead of 499 runs in their Group A Ranji Trophy cricket match here today.

At stumps on the third day, Karnataka, after surprisingly choosing to bat the second time despite enforcing follow-on on the visitors, were eight for no loss at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. However, it must be noted that Karnataka had already booked a berth in the quarterfinals.

The hosts swelled their overall lead to 507 runs with a day to spare.
Karnataka had declared their first innings after posting a mammoth 719 for nine yesterday evening. The hosts then bowled out Uttar Pradesh in 87.4 overs, with Shreyas Gopal (4/51) and Sreenath Aravind (3/48) sharing the spoils.

When the stumps were drawn on the penultimate day, Robin Uthappa was batting on eight with Ravikumar Samarth yet to open his account.

Uttar Pradesh, in the absence of star batsman Suresh Raina, did not have any answer to Gopal and Aravind's bowling.

Gopal and Aravind ended with very creditable figures on a pitch that saw Stuart Binny become the first Karnataka batsman to notch up a triple century in first-class cricket as well as Ranji Trophy. Of his four scalps, Gopal cherished the wicket of Himanshu Asnora the most -- the batsman top-scored for UP with a knock of 70.

Uttar Pradesh had a bad start, losing opener Tanmay Srivastava with the scoreboard reading 18.

Uttar Pradesh lost three wickets with the score reading 61, but made a bit of recovery when Asnora and Parvinder Singh (34) built an 83-run partnership for fourth wicket.
The visitors, however, lost six wickets adding just 76 runs.