Samarth helps himself to a double century

One of the substitutes from the Jharkhand camp rushed in with an energy drink even as R. Samarth made his way back to the dressing room after a brilliant 235, having scored just one run less than his first day score of 118. Karnataka, resuming at 248 for three, declared at 577 for six.

Having been at the receiving end for most part of the contest, the Jharkhand players did not forget the spirit of the game as they made a beeline to pat Samarth for an innings that put Karnataka in a position to dictate.

The Jharkhand substitute sprinted towards Samarth, shook his hand, and joined his team-mates near the square. They had managed to cause a lapse in the concentration of a batsman determined to carry on strongly.

Samarth, flawless in his occupation of the crease, had not fallen into the spinners’ trap until that fatal moment when he chose to swipe across the line only to see the stumps disturbed.

Samarth, the central figure in Karntaka’s dominance of the opposition, was relentless and unsparing in his aim to punish the bowlers with a wide range of shots — all done with a still head.

His 115-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Kaunain Abbas propelled Karnataka into a position of strength. Abbas helped himself to a neat 55 (118b, 6x4, 1x6) before Stuart Binny took over the mantle of pushing the score at a brisk pace.

Binny, the dominant partner during the 185-run stand for the fifth wicket with Samarth, had himself to blame for playing an ambitious lofted shot that left him three short of a century.

Binny’s departure allowed Jharkhand to slow down the scoring rate as Karnataka chose to depend on its experienced batsman in the middle.

“Our plan was to bat once and we have achieved that,” said Binny. “I wish I hadn’t played that shot but I am pleased with our game overall.”

The pitch was disappointing as there was little help and the Jharkhand bowlers toiled to keep the run-flow under check. There were some dull moments and some electrifying, like when Binny hit the ball around and Samarth too joined the run-plundering race at a rapid rate.

Jharkhand captain Varun Aaron observed, “We played the catching up game after conceding some extra runs. It’s a flat pitch and there’s not much for the bowlers. But I wouldn’t take away any credit from Karnataka. They batted well.”

That summed up the day’s play as Jharkhand finished at nine for no loss.

The scores:

Karnataka —1st innings: R. Samarth b Nadeem 235, Mayank Agarwal c Tiwary b Ashish 15, Robin Uthappa c Kishan b Ashish 2, Karun Nair b Ashish 74, Kaunain Abbas b Aaron 55, Stuart Binny c Anand Singh b Nadeem 97, C.M. Gautham (not out) 36, Shreyas Gopal (not out) 21; Extras (b-16, lb-8, nb-18): 42; Total (for six wkts. decl. in 172 overs): 577.

Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-32, 3-187, 4-302, 5-487, 6-533.

Jharkhand bowling: Ashish Kumar 33-7-78-3, Varun Aaron 28-2-80-1, Samar Quadri 37-3-130-0, Shahbaz Nadeem 57-7-199-2, Kaushal Singh 16-2-63-0, Saurabh Tiwary 1-0-3-0.

Jharkhand —1st innings: S.P. Gautam (batting) 1, Anand Singh (batting) 8; Total (for no loss in five overs): 9.

Karnataka bowling: R. Vinay Kumar 1.3-0-3-0, Abhimanyu Mithun 2-1-1-0, Binny 1.3-0-5-0.