Karnataka gain first innings lead

As expected, Karnataka gained the first innings lead over Madhya Pradesh to put a strong foot forward towards the semi-final of Ranji Trophy this season. But there wasn't any flashy individual batting excellence, rather a combined effort saw Karnataka end up at 306/8 at the end of second day. Robin Uthappa (44), Manish Pandey (49) again missed the half-century marks, but Amit Verma (85) kept going to take Karnataka to the lead. Skipper Vinay Kumar would take as much time for the innings to close on Day 3 and then play it safe not to let MP gain much advantage in their second innings. With 2 days left, it shouldn't be a big sweat for Karnataka to move into the semi-finals.

Defending champions Mumbai, however, is finding it too tough to defend their title this time, as Rajasthan stroked to 236/1 at the end of day 2, only 16 runs behind Mumbai's first innings total of 252. It may be recalled, Mumbai was undone by a hostile bowling effort by Pankaj SIngh (6/64) on day 1.

As expected, Karnataka gained the first innings lead over Madhya Pradesh to put a strong foot forward towards the semi-final of Ranji Trophy this season. But there wasn't any flashy individual batting excellence, rather a combined effort saw Karnataka end up at 306/8 at the end of second day. Robin Uthappa (44), Manish Pandey (49) again missed the half-century marks, but Amit Verma (85) kept going to take Karnataka to the lead. Skipper Vinay Kumar would take as much time for the innings to close on Day 3 and then play it safe not to let MP gain much advantage in their second innings. With 2 days left, it shouldn't be a big sweat for Karnataka to move into the semi-finals.

Defending champions Mumbai, however, is finding it too tough to defend their title this time, as Rajasthan stroked to 236/1 at the end of day 2, only 16 runs behind Mumbai's first innings total of 252. It may be recalled, Mumbai was undone by a hostile bowling effort by Pankaj SIngh (6/64) on day 1.