Ranji Trophy: Shreyas Gopal, Shikhar Shetty spin a massive win for Karnataka

Bengaluru: Senior spinner Shreyas Gopal laid the foundation with a dazzling display in the first innings before his junior colleague Shikhar Shetty completed the formalities with a coming-of-age performance in the second as dominant Karnataka wrapped up a crushing win over hapless Chandigarh in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group B clash in Hubballi on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old leg-spinner Shreyas (7/73), who had already bagged three wickets on Monday to leave Chandigarh’s response to Karnataka’s mammoth first innings total of 547/8 declared in a wreck, added four more scalps on Tuesday at the KSCA Stadium that saw the visitors being bundled out for 222 in 63.2 overs.

Mayank Agarwal had no hesitation in asking Chandigarh to follow-on and 20-year-old left-arm orthodox spinner vindicated his skipper’s choice with a superb 5/61 -- his maiden five-wicket haul in just his third match -- as Karnataka bowled out the visitors for 140 in 33.5 overs to complete an innings and 185-run win.

This was Karnataka’s second innings victory in three games and the eight-time champions, hoping to end a decade-long wait for the coveted Ranji Trophy, roared to the top of the table with 21 points from 5 games. Maharashtra, who inflicted an innings and 92-run defeat on Punjab, are second on 18 points.

Karnataka red-ball team will now take a two-month break for limited-overs contests along with the rest of the teams before taking on Madhya Pradesh in Bengaluru from January 22-26, 2026 for their penultimate Group B clash. Their final match is against Punjab in New Chandigarh.

Resuming on 72/4, the odds were stacked against Chandigarh despite skipper Manan Vohra being in the middle. The seasoned performer waged a lone fight with a gritty 106 not out off 161 balls but with hardly any of his team-mates offering a fight amidst an inspired bowling from Shreyas, their goose was cooked.

In fact, Chandigarh’s slide started from the very first ball of the day when Shreyas trapped Ankit Kaushik leg-before. Shreyas was at it again when he had Rajangad Bawa caught behind to reduce Chandigarh to 104/6. Just when Shreyas thought he could run over Chandigarh, Gaurav Puri (32) defied Karnataka with an 84-run alliance for the seventh wicket with Vohra.

Shikhar (2/43) broke their partnership in the 54th over after which Shreyas delivered two quick strikes while the former castled Nishunk Birla to put an end to Chandigarh’s late-order resistance.

Vidwath Kaverappa, who was a bystander for most of the first innings, got Karnataka off a fine start when he dismissed opener Arjun Azad in the third over with just one run on the board. Shivam Bhambri (43) and Nikhil Thakur fought back with a 64-run partnership but the moment Shikhar scalped Bhambri, the floodgates opened for Karnataka.