Ashwin Crist wrecks Karnataka

Mukund’s side then took control as wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik (31 batting) and Vijay Shankar (34) weathered an early storm to give Tamil Nadu, a crucial first-innings lead by the end of the day. Tamil Nadu were 111 for four, with a lead of 23 runs. Aswin Crist took six wickets for 31 runs and Natarajan three as Karnataka found survival a difficult task at Visakahapatnam. 

Test batsman Rahul was the first to go when he edged Natarajan to Aparajith in the second over of the day. Kaunian Abbas played 24 balls without opening his account and was dismissed without scoring by Aswin Crist. Opener R Samarth became Natarajan’s second victim when he left for 11 after a 70-minute vigil, caught by Kaushik Gandhi. 

The score was 31 for three.  When Natarajan dismissed Mithun caught behind by Karthik off Crist it became 44 for four. Karun Nair and Manish Pandey tried to stem the rot but Crist struck again, twice in successive overs removing Pandey (28) and Stuart Binny at 61. The deep Karnataka batting had no reply to Crist as Karun Nair, Gautham and Vinay Kumar left cheaply. Vignesh took the last wicket that of S Gopal as Karnataka were bowled out in 37.1 overs. 

Tamil Nadu started their reply in right earnest as openers Suryaprakash and Kaushik Gandhi added 30 runs before Aravind took two wickets. Suryaprakash, Gandhi and Indrajith were out quickly as TN reeled at 33 for three before Karthik and Vijay Shankar added 70 runs for the fourth wicket to give them the lead. Vijay Shankar was run out by Kaunian Abbas for 34 but by then TN looked set for a good total with Karthik and Abhinav Mukund at the crease.

BRIEF SCORES: Karnataka 88 (Manish Pandey 28, Aswin Crist 6-31, Natarajan 3-18) vs TN 111-4 (Vijay Shankar 34, Karthik batting 31).

Siddhesh Lad struck an unbeaten 101 to help Mumbai reach 250 for five on the first day of their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Hyderabad here on Friday. Lad and Abhishek Nayar (46 batting) added 111 runs for the unbroken sixth wicket after Mumbai slumped to 34 for four and 139 for five. Wicket-keeper batsman A Tare made a stroke-filled 73 in the middle-order to steady the ship. At Vadodara, Haryana were 251 for seven on the first day against Jharkhand. C Bishnoir (41) and RS Paliwal (42) were the main scorers for Haryana. S. Nadeed took five wickets for 75 runs.Gujarat were 197 for six at close on the first day in the other quarter-final against Odisha at Jaipur. Chirag Gandhi (62) and Rush Kaleria (59) were the main scorers.