After bowling Karnataka out for 515 earlier in the day, Maharashtra were leading by 62 runs with four wickets in hand at stumps in the Ranji Trophy 2013-14 final in Hyderabad.
Kedar Jadhav continued his glorious form in the Ranji Trophy with a sparkling century as Karnataka maintained their upper hand with a day left in the game.
Karnataka finished their first innings on 515 taking a sizeable 210 run first innings lead. In reply, Maharashtra were 272 for six in their second essay courtesy 112 by Jadhav and his 118-run partnership for the third wicket with Ankit Bawne (61).
Earlier, in the third over of the morning, with just one run added to the tally, Shreyas Gopal returned after edging Anupam Sanklecha to Rohit Motwani behind the stumps. A few overs later, Abhimanyu Mithun who had helped extend the lead beyond 200 with Vinay Kumar was sent back by Shrikant Mundhe. And an over later, the Karnataka captain was run out with the lead on 210.
Having bowled Karnataka out, Vijay Zol then came out to open the proceedings for Maharashtra in the second innings with Harshad Khadiwale. With just 18 runs on the board, Khadiwale who had been a key batsman for the team through the league stages departed pulling Vinay Kumar to Ganesh Satish at mid-wicket. Ankit Bawne and Zol then bided their time at the crease to take the team to lunch with 54 for one.
On the first ball of the second session the opening batsman was sent back by Vinay for 31. With Kedar Jadhav for company, Bawne posted another half-century. The top-order batsman took two off Gopal to reach his fifty. Without losing any further wickets in the session, Bawne and Jadhav took the team to 164 for two at tea.
However in the second over of the last session the flourishing stand was ended by Gopal. Stepping out to the spinner, Bawne was stumped for 61. An over later Sangram Atitkar followed him back without opening his account. With score on 174 for four, Chirag Khurana joined experienced Jadhav in the middle. The pair overcame the deficit and worked to build a target for Karnataka.
Jadhav who looked in good nick but missed out on a big score in the first innings, soon brought up his hundred with a boundary off Amit Verma off just 118 balls. Vinay Kumar dismissed Khurana and followed up with the wicket of Jadhav in his next to provide his team with two crucial breakthroughs late in the day’s play. Jadhav who had held the innings together departed for 112, hitting the ball to Robin Uthappa. With his fourth wicket of the innings, Vinay Kumar took his tally of first-class wickets to 300.
At stumps, Skipper Rohit Motwani (3*) and Shrikant Mundhe (3 *) will expect to take the lead closer to 150 if Maharashtra are thinking of making a match of it and pull off what looks like an improbable win as of now.
