Jamshedpur, Jan 24 (PTI) Spinners K Gowtham (4/61) and Shreyas Gopal (3/18) helped Karnataka dismiss Jharkhand for 164 in the first innings on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group C match here on Tuesday.
Table-toppers Karnataka ended the day at 80 for 2, still trailing Jharkhand by 84 runs.
Mayank Agarwal (20) and R Samarth (31) were the visiting team batters to be dismissed.
After opting to bat first, the home team kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Medium-pacer Vidwath Kaverappa (2/34) struck the first blow by removing opening batter Kumar Deobrat (18) in the ninth over. Five overs later, Gowtham removed the other opener Aryaman Sen (6).
Though Kumar Suraj (22) tried to dig in, Gowtham removed captain Virat Singh (8) and the experienced Saurabh Tiwary (0) in successive balls in the 20th over as Jharkhand slumped to 57 for 4.
Suraj and Kumar Kushagra (37), the top-scorer, put on 29 runs before Gowtham had the former caught by Agarwal.
A 38-run stand for the seventh wicket between Kushagra and Shahbaz Nadeem (22) saved Jharkhand from being bundled out for a low score.
Kushagra was one of Gopal’s three scalps, caught by Manish Pandey.
Useful contributions from the lower order pushed Jharkhand past the 150-run mark.
In other matches, Kerala, which is aiming to qualify for the knockout phase, had to toil on day 1 against Pondicherry as Paras Dogra’s ton helped the team score 253 for 4 in 87 overs while Rajasthan bowled out Services for 178 and replied with 58 for 2 at stumps in a must-win game.
Brief scores: Jharkhand 164 all out in 64.2 overs (Kumar Kushaagra 37; K Gowtham 4/61, Shreyas Gopal 3/18) vs Karnataka 80 for 2 in 27 overs (R Samarth 31).
At Puducherry: Pondicherry 253 for 4 in 87 overs (Paras K Dogra 117 batting 254 balls, K B Arun Karthick 75 batting, J S Pande 38) vs Kerala.
At Jodhpur: Services 178 all out in 56.4 overs (Rahul Singh Gahlaut 70, Pulkit Narag 38; MJ Suthar 4/56) vs Rajasthan 58 for 2 in 20 overs (Y B Kothari 34).
At Raipur: Chhattisgarh 273 for 4 in 88 overs (Shashank Chandrakar 101, A G Tiwary 86, Ashutosh Singh 55) vs Goa.
Source: PTI News
