Ranji Trophy 2014: Karnataka tail frustrates Bengal; Uttar Pradesh stutter against Madhya Pradesh

In reply, Bengal had a terribly slow start before ending the day at 62 for one, still needing a huge 347 runs to ensure three points.

Starting the day on 237 for seven, Karnataka never gave the Bengal bowlers a breather after play resumed post a 45-minute stoppage due to bad light in the morning.

Dinda (7/87) began impressively dismissing Vinay Kumar without any addition to his overnight 42 in the first over of the day en-route to his 16th five-wicket haul but their momentum was broken after bad-light halted play.

By the time the play resumed the wicket had eased out and it was all about the grit and application shown by the Shreyas-Arvind duo.

Their intention was pretty clear and they dominated the proceedings going into lunch at 350 for nine with Shreyas five runs shy of the three-figure mark.

Shreyas, who bats in the middle-order in the age-group cricket, never lost his composure and celebrated his maiden first-class century off Veer Pratap Singh, who bagged three wickets.

But by then the duo bettered Karnataka’s previous highest 10th wicket partnership of 121 by Yera Goud and N C Aiyappa against Rajasthan in the 2007-08 season.

The domestic record is held by Ajay Sharma and Maninder Singh, who stitched 233 together against the then Bombay in 1991-92 season.

Bengal opening duo of Rohan Banerjee and Arindam were extra cautious and restrained themselves from playing their natural game.

Karnataka captain Vinay Kumar gave the breakthrough dismissing Das as Sudeep Chaterjee, fresh from his glorious 192 in Baroda, was batting on 10 along with Banerjee (27 not out) at stumps.

Having completed his century, the 21-year-old Karnataka hit Veer Pratap for a six as Bengal bowlers had a tough time to break the partnership.

It was Dinda, who finally brought an end to the misery by dismissing Shreyas after he took an edge behind the stumps while going for a backfoot punch to be dismissed five runs short of 150.

Brief Scores: Karnataka 408; 108.1 overs (Shreyas Gopal 145, C M Gautam 63, Vinay Kumar 42; Ashok Dinda 7-87). Bengal 62/1 in 25 overs (Rohan Banerjee 27 not out, Sudip Chatterjee 10 not out; R Vinay Kumar 1-22).

MP bowlers put UP on backfoot

On a day dominated by bowlers, the Devendra Bundela-led Madhya Pradesh put Uttar Pradesh on the backfoot in the Group A Ranji Trophy cricket match, in Indore on Monday.

Responding to MP’s first-innings score of 296 in the four-day encounter at Holkar Stadium, the Piyush Chawla-led UP were also in trouble after ending Day 2 on 149 for six, still trailing the hosts by 147 runs.

If rising chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav, bagging four wickets, was the destroyer-in-chief for UP in the first innings then the MP attack was ably led by Ishwar Pandey, who has picked up three wickets till now.

Medium-pacers Sanjay Mishra (2-36) and Datay (1-43) also contributed to the wickets column.

Chawla (19 not out) and Praveen (25 not out) were fighting hard to help UP see better days.

Earlier starting on their overnight score of 195 for seven, MP, led by Devendra Bundela, lower-order fought well with number nine-batsman Puneet Datay remaining unbeaten on 63.

The eight-wicket 85-run partnership between Datay and Mishra made the difference in the end.

Brief Scores: Madhya Pradesh 296 in 116.3 overs (Devendra Bundela 80, Puneet Datay 63 not out; Kuldeep Yadav 4-48, Praveen Kumar 3-43, RP Singh 3-68)

Uttar Pradesh 149/6 in 56 overs (Umang Sharma 58, Parvinder Singh 25; Ishwar Pandey 3-17).