Karnataka were leading by 19 runs in the second innings with all wickets intact at stumps on the second day of the Irani Cup match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. The Ranji Trophy champions wrapped up Rest of India’s innings for 264 in the final session of the day. Even as the Karnataka captain, Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun and Shreyas Gopal struck at regular intervals, Kedar Jadhav's determined 78 helped ROI to a 20-run first-innings lead before being bowled out.
R Samarth and Mayank Agarwal then helped Karnataka overhaul the deficit and took them to 39 without loss until the end of day’s play.
Earlier, in his first over of the morning, Vinay had Jiwanjot Singh caught by Robin Uthappa as the ball edged past the bat down the leg side. ROI struggled in the first session as the defending champions claimed four wickets. Gopal had Paras Dogra return to the pavilion lbw 49 runs later. MP's wicketkeeper batsman, Naman Ojha, was the next to depart a few overs later. A brilliant one-handed diving catch by Agarwal in the slips gave Abhimanyu Mithun his first wicket of the day. Vinay followed it up with the wicket of his opposite number, Manoj Tiwary, to leave ROI on 102 for five.
Jayant Yadav then joined Jadhav in the middle to take ROI to Lunch at 127 for five. In an effort to stabilise the innings the pair stitched a partnership to keep the side in the fray. Their blossoming stand, however, was ended for 80 runs by Gopal. The leg-spinner bowled Yadav to leave the side on 182 for six.
Jadhav continued to put up a fight as he held the innings together. He slammed Gopal for three successive boundaries in his next over to plunder 13 off it and take the team to the 200-run mark. While they toiled to surpass Karnataka’s first innings score, Rishi Dhawan was the next to return to the dressing room. With the team on 218, Abhimanyu Mithun sent back Dhawan and a ball later claimed the key wicket of Jadhav at the stroke of tea.
Shardul Thakur and Varun Aaron then prodded on to take ROI within two runs of the opposition's score until the former was castled by Gopal. With Pragyan Ojha, Aaron then added 22 runs before Sreenath Aravind bowled the latter to end ROI’s first innings.
Brief scores:
End of Day 1: Kar 1st inn 244 all out in 77.1 overs (M Agarwal 68, V Aaron 6/63, P Ojha 2/35); ROI 1st inn 20/1 in 5 overs (J Singh 16*, Vinay Kumar 1/12)
End of Day 2: ROI 1st inn 264 all out in 75.4 overs (K Jadhav 78, A Mithun 3/46, S Gopal 3/51, Vinay Kumar 3/76); Kar 2nd inn 39/0 in 11 overs (R Samarth 21, M Agarwal 15)
