Defending Champions Karnataka were leading by 321 runs in the second innings with four wickets in hand at stumps on the third day of the Irani Cup match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Karnataka lost Mayank Agarwal in the third over after resuming on the overnight score of 39. The opener departed edging Varun Aaron to Kedar Jadhav in the slips for 28. Abhishek Reddy then joined R Samarth and helped the team past the three-figure mark before being trapped lbw by Pragyan Ojha for 31. Robin Uthappa who replaced him in the middle too walked back couple of overs later; castled by Aaron for six.
With the team on 121 for three, Karun Nair joined the opener in the middle and the two in-form batsmen then took Karnataka to Lunch at 148 for three.
The opener was the first to return to the pavilion in the second session. After having held the innings together with a patient 159-ball 81, Samarth was bowled by Shardul Thakur. Nair and Manish Pandey then maintained a steady flow of runs to take the team through to tea without losing further wickets.
The batsmen rotated the strike as they shaped the innings. Pandey claimed three boundaries in an over off Pragyan as they looked to build on the lead. But the blossoming stand was ended with the team on 288. Nair was out lbw to Pragyan for 80 and in the next over Rishi Dhawan accounted for Shyeyas Gopal.
With his side on 289 for six, captain Vinay Kumar joined Pandey in an effort to set the opposition a stiff target. The duo took the team past the 300-run mark and worked to strengthen their position. On 341 for six, with Pandey batting on 73 and Vinay on 28, Karnataka were in a commanding position at the end of day's play.
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)
End of Day 3: Kar 2nd inn 341/6 in 43 overs (R Samarth 81, K Nair 80, M Pandey 73*, V Aaron 2/85, P Ojha 2/93)
