<p>Bengaluru: When asked if Haryana, having already secured the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal ticket along with Kerala on Friday itself, would lift their foot off the pedal against Karnataka and conserve their energy for the bigger battle ahead, skipper Ankit Kumar’s reply was an emphatic ‘no’.</p>.<p>“Cricket is all about momentum and we are determined to win the contest against Karnataka. It’s always better to go into a quarterfinal with a win under your belt rather than a draw or a defeat. We are going to push for a victory. Karnataka is a big team and beating them will lift our morale,” Ankit said after his brilliant 118 on Friday.</p>.Ranji Trophy | Ankit kills Karnataka’s hopes of quarterfinal berth.<p>Promising young all-rounder Nishant Sindhu answered his captain’s call with an exceptional 165 off 184 balls (15x4, 6x6), powering Haryana to 450 all out and a massive first innings lead of 146 runs at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.</p>.<p>Very importantly, Sindhu’s smashing knock — his sixth first-class ton of a fledgling career — has all but confirmed 3 points for the northerners and a top spot in Group C. </p><p>Currently on 26 points behind Kerala (28), Haryana have a fine chance of emerging as group winners on Sunday with Karnataka stumbling to 108/3 at stumps.</p>.<p>The 20-year-old Sindhu, who was the vice-captain of India’s U-19 World Cup-winning team in 2022, gave another demonstration of why his talent has been spoken about quite highly in the domestic circuit. Strongly built for a lad of his age, Sindhu single-handedly took apart a high quality Karnataka pace attack comprising India international Prasidh Krishna and Vidwath Kaverappa and V Koushik — the youthful exuberance and daredevilry in full display.</p>.<p>Flashy most of the times, Sindhu had no second thoughts in going for the high-risk shots considering he was given the licence to thrill. Pulls, hooks, cover drives, flicks and audacious shots over the slip cordon… the southpaw just kept speeding along in top gear, rarely lowering it. </p>.<p>Barring Koushik, everyone was at the receiving end of Sindhu’s belligerence with Prasidh coming in for special treatment. Karnataka skipper Mayank Agarwal was left to rue a dropped chance — a simple catch at mid-off — off Kaverappa when Sindhu was on 75.</p>.<p>Karnataka bowlers, going through the motion, struggled to contain the run-flow and their only hope was Haryana batters gifting their wickets away in their pursuit of quick runs. That’s what happened eventually but not before the visitors had taken a handsome lead.</p>.<p><strong>SCORE BOARD</strong> KARNATAKA (I Innings): 304 HARYANA (I Innings O/n: 232/5): Lakshya Dalal c Rahul b Parantap 22 (75b 4x4) Ankit Kumar c sub b Hardik 118 (154b 19x4) Yuvraj Singh c Padikkal b Parantap 33 (68b 3x4) Himanshu Rana lbw Koushik 5 (25b 1x4) Himanshu Rana 5 (25b 1x4) Nishant Sindhu c Smaran b Hardik 165 (184b 15x4 6x6) Dheeru Singh b Prasidh 8 (10b 2x4) Rohit Sharma c Koushik b Prasidh 10 (29b 1x4) Jayant Yadav lbw Prasidh 32 (88b 3x4) Anshul Kamboj c sub b Hardik 25 (18b 6x4) Ajit Chahal (not out) 1 (6b). Extras (B-2 LB-3 W-1) 6. TOTAL (all out 115.3 overs) 450. Fall of wickets: 1-74 (Dalal) 2-152 (Yuvraj Singh) 3-165 (Rana) 4-198 (Ankit) 5-209 (Dheeru) 6-241 (Rohit) 7-339 (Jayant) 8-374 (Kamboj) 9-430 (Thakral). Bowling: V Koushik 26-4-63-1 Vidwath Kaverappa 27-5-83-0 Prasidh Krishna 23-1-105-3 Yashovardhan Parantap 21-2-107-2 Hardik Raj 16.3-2-73-3 Agarwal 2-0-14-1. KARNATAKA (II Innings): Aneesh KV b Kamboj 4 (19b) Mayank Agarwal b Chahal 6 (20b 1x4) KL Rahul b Thakral 43 (67b 7x4) Devdutt Padikkal (batting) 41 (61b 6x4) R Smaran (batting) 9 (25b). Extras (B-4 LB-1) 5. TOTAL (for 3 wkts 32 overs) 108. Fall of wickets: 1-10 (Aneesh) 2-30 (Agarwal) 3-87 (Rahul). Bowling: Anshul Kamboj 7-3-11-1 Ajit Chahal 8-0-27-1 Anuj Thakral 7-1-36-1 Jayant Yadav 7-1-22-0 Nishant Sindhu 3-0-7-0. Other Elite C brief scores: At Kolkata: Punjab: 191 all out & (O/n: 64/3) 139 all 0ut in 35.4 overs (Anmolpreet Singh 30 Mayank Markande 31 Gurnoor Brar 26; Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal 4-69 Sumit Mohanta 3-29 Mohammed Kaif 2-41) lt to Bengal: 343 all out by an innings an 13 runs. Points: Bengal 7; Punjab: 0. At Indore: Madhya Pradesh: 670/7 decl in 160 overs vs Uttar Pradesh: (O/n: 95/0) 404/2 in 105 overs (Abhishek Goswami 186 Madhav Kaushik 80 Aryan Juyal 96 n.o.). </p>
<p>Bengaluru: When asked if Haryana, having already secured the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal ticket along with Kerala on Friday itself, would lift their foot off the pedal against Karnataka and conserve their energy for the bigger battle ahead, skipper Ankit Kumar’s reply was an emphatic ‘no’.</p>.<p>“Cricket is all about momentum and we are determined to win the contest against Karnataka. It’s always better to go into a quarterfinal with a win under your belt rather than a draw or a defeat. We are going to push for a victory. Karnataka is a big team and beating them will lift our morale,” Ankit said after his brilliant 118 on Friday.</p>.Ranji Trophy | Ankit kills Karnataka’s hopes of quarterfinal berth.<p>Promising young all-rounder Nishant Sindhu answered his captain’s call with an exceptional 165 off 184 balls (15x4, 6x6), powering Haryana to 450 all out and a massive first innings lead of 146 runs at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.</p>.<p>Very importantly, Sindhu’s smashing knock — his sixth first-class ton of a fledgling career — has all but confirmed 3 points for the northerners and a top spot in Group C. </p><p>Currently on 26 points behind Kerala (28), Haryana have a fine chance of emerging as group winners on Sunday with Karnataka stumbling to 108/3 at stumps.</p>.<p>The 20-year-old Sindhu, who was the vice-captain of India’s U-19 World Cup-winning team in 2022, gave another demonstration of why his talent has been spoken about quite highly in the domestic circuit. Strongly built for a lad of his age, Sindhu single-handedly took apart a high quality Karnataka pace attack comprising India international Prasidh Krishna and Vidwath Kaverappa and V Koushik — the youthful exuberance and daredevilry in full display.</p>.<p>Flashy most of the times, Sindhu had no second thoughts in going for the high-risk shots considering he was given the licence to thrill. Pulls, hooks, cover drives, flicks and audacious shots over the slip cordon… the southpaw just kept speeding along in top gear, rarely lowering it. </p>.<p>Barring Koushik, everyone was at the receiving end of Sindhu’s belligerence with Prasidh coming in for special treatment. Karnataka skipper Mayank Agarwal was left to rue a dropped chance — a simple catch at mid-off — off Kaverappa when Sindhu was on 75.</p>.<p>Karnataka bowlers, going through the motion, struggled to contain the run-flow and their only hope was Haryana batters gifting their wickets away in their pursuit of quick runs. That’s what happened eventually but not before the visitors had taken a handsome lead.</p>.<p><strong>SCORE BOARD</strong> KARNATAKA (I Innings): 304 HARYANA (I Innings O/n: 232/5): Lakshya Dalal c Rahul b Parantap 22 (75b 4x4) Ankit Kumar c sub b Hardik 118 (154b 19x4) Yuvraj Singh c Padikkal b Parantap 33 (68b 3x4) Himanshu Rana lbw Koushik 5 (25b 1x4) Himanshu Rana 5 (25b 1x4) Nishant Sindhu c Smaran b Hardik 165 (184b 15x4 6x6) Dheeru Singh b Prasidh 8 (10b 2x4) Rohit Sharma c Koushik b Prasidh 10 (29b 1x4) Jayant Yadav lbw Prasidh 32 (88b 3x4) Anshul Kamboj c sub b Hardik 25 (18b 6x4) Ajit Chahal (not out) 1 (6b). Extras (B-2 LB-3 W-1) 6. TOTAL (all out 115.3 overs) 450. Fall of wickets: 1-74 (Dalal) 2-152 (Yuvraj Singh) 3-165 (Rana) 4-198 (Ankit) 5-209 (Dheeru) 6-241 (Rohit) 7-339 (Jayant) 8-374 (Kamboj) 9-430 (Thakral). Bowling: V Koushik 26-4-63-1 Vidwath Kaverappa 27-5-83-0 Prasidh Krishna 23-1-105-3 Yashovardhan Parantap 21-2-107-2 Hardik Raj 16.3-2-73-3 Agarwal 2-0-14-1. KARNATAKA (II Innings): Aneesh KV b Kamboj 4 (19b) Mayank Agarwal b Chahal 6 (20b 1x4) KL Rahul b Thakral 43 (67b 7x4) Devdutt Padikkal (batting) 41 (61b 6x4) R Smaran (batting) 9 (25b). Extras (B-4 LB-1) 5. TOTAL (for 3 wkts 32 overs) 108. Fall of wickets: 1-10 (Aneesh) 2-30 (Agarwal) 3-87 (Rahul). Bowling: Anshul Kamboj 7-3-11-1 Ajit Chahal 8-0-27-1 Anuj Thakral 7-1-36-1 Jayant Yadav 7-1-22-0 Nishant Sindhu 3-0-7-0. Other Elite C brief scores: At Kolkata: Punjab: 191 all out & (O/n: 64/3) 139 all 0ut in 35.4 overs (Anmolpreet Singh 30 Mayank Markande 31 Gurnoor Brar 26; Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal 4-69 Sumit Mohanta 3-29 Mohammed Kaif 2-41) lt to Bengal: 343 all out by an innings an 13 runs. Points: Bengal 7; Punjab: 0. At Indore: Madhya Pradesh: 670/7 decl in 160 overs vs Uttar Pradesh: (O/n: 95/0) 404/2 in 105 overs (Abhishek Goswami 186 Madhav Kaushik 80 Aryan Juyal 96 n.o.). </p>