Debutant Bedare, Vyshak keep Karnataka floating

Bengaluru: Debutant Kishan Bedare and pacer V Vyshak produced half-centuries in the crunch to lift Karnataka out of the abyss on the opening day of their Group C Ranji Trophy clash against Tripura in Agartala on Friday.

With Karnataka handing four debuts on the day in the six changes they made to the side from the previous match, senior batters were expected to take more responsibility and make it count, especially those who got the starts. At stumps on the opening day, Karnataka had managed to post 241/8 in 78 overs when the play was called off due to bad light.   

After being asked to bat first, Karnataka found themselves in a spot as the hosts reduced the visitors to 16/3 with opener R Samarth (1), debutant KV Aneesh (1) and last-match centurion Nikin Jose (4) getting out in a flash.

The absence of Devdutt Padikkal and Manish Pandey, both of whom have been among big runs this season, was clearly telling in the mini collapse but skipper Mayank Agarwal (51, 100b, 10x4) continued his good form to revive the innings in the company Bedare. The two added 87 runs (131 balls) for the fourth wicket at a decent clip before Agarwal, who had struck two centuries in back to back matches coming into this match, fell prematurely. When the captain was out, Karnataka's score read 103, still far from being safe. 

Wicketkeeper-batter Sharath Srinivas (25) was another experienced batter who couldn't build on his after raising 50 runs with Bedare. The right-hander followed Bedare in the hut after the addition of 11 runs to the total. Another debutant Hardik Raj fell for the same score as Karnataka slipped to 164/7 from a relatively comfortable position of 153/4. 

Karnataka now needed someone from the lower-order to provide them a fillip and Vyshak put his hand up and delivered. The pacer, who has improved his batting skills considerably over the last year or so, remained unbeaten on 50 (61b, 7x4) while adding 60 invaluable runs for the eighth wicket with Shashi Kumar K (19), who was the fourth player to be handed the Ranji debut.

Karnataka will hope the tail wags a bit longer on the second morning and gives them enough runs on the board to make a fist of it.