HUBLI: Riding on Yawer Hassan and Shubham Pundir's composed batting, Jammu & Kashmir reached 104/1 at lunch on Day 1 of the Ranji Trophy final against the eight-time champions Karnataka here at the Hubli Cricket Ground on Tuesday.
Jammu and Kashmir has an excellent start after opting to bat first. Openers Qamran Iqbal and Yawer Hassan had a testing time against the new ball, but they managed to survive the first 10 overs before Iqbal was sent packing by Prasidh Krishna for six runs. But Hassan (57 not out) carried on with solid support from Shubham Pundir (38 not out) from the other end.
The duo stitched together an 86-run partnership for the second wicket when lunch was called. Vidhyadhar Patil and Vyshak Vijay Kumar started the attack for the hosts. Both pacers have generated enough movement from the pitch. Karnataka had a loud appeal early on for a caught behind when Qamaran tried to defend on the front foot, and the umpire raised the finger without second thoughts.
However, Qamran had a chat with Yawer and challenged the decision with two seconds left on the timer. It showed there was a big gap between bat and ball, and the umpire overturned the decision to not out. The first strike for Karnataka came after 45 minutes of play when Prasidh Krishna got rid of Qamran.
The opener was wobbly, with his feet prodding and charging forward often to Vidhyadhar Patil in the first spell from this end. Just as he began to look settled in, he failed to account for the extra bounce from Prasidh, handing a simple catch to KL Rahul at second slip.
After Qamran's dismissal, the J&K batter got cautious, occasionally punishing the bad balls. Yawer, who has been beaten a few times but has looked the more assured batter, raised his maiden First Class half-century with a single off Shreyas Gopal in the 27th over.
Pundir and Yawer were chipping away runs constantly, and J&K reached 100 before lunch, as Karnataka were slightly unlucky, as their three pacers have bowled disciplined spells but managed just the one wicket, as J&K are comfortably placed at 104/1 at lunch. Brief scores: Jammu & Kashmir 104/1 (Yawer Hassan 57* and Shubham Pundir 38*; Prasidh Krishna 1-20) against Karnataka at Lunch.