Raju, Nair slam tons as Karnataka amass big total

After beginning the season with back to back titles, Karnataka boys kicked off their Moin-Ud-Dowlah campaign in style here on Thursday.

Leading the side in the absence of Stuart Binny, who has been given permission to opt out due to dometsic reasons, Sunil Raju led from the front with an unbeaten century as the Karnataka XI amassed 436 for six in their first innings quota of 90 overs on the opening day of their three-day match against Hyderabad President’s XI.

While KL Rahul (33) and R Samarth (22) failed to kick on after good starts, Karun Nair and Sunil made the most of ideal batting conditions to crack big tons.

Nair was out after scoring a brilliant 168, Sunil remained unbeaten on 158 when stumps were drawn for the day.

Amol Shinde was the most successful of home bowlers with returns of 4/126 while MP Arun and Ashish Reddy claimed a wicket each.

The Ganesh Satish-led KSCA XI had won the season-opener Safi Darashah Trophy tournament while R Vinay Kumar guided the side to Buchi Babu title last week.  
Brief scores: Karnataka XI: 436/6 in 90 overs (KL Rahul 33, Karun Nair 168, Sunil Raju 158 batting, Ronit More 5 batting; Amol Shinde 4-126) vs Hyderabad President’s XI.