Ranji Trophy 2018-19, Semifinals, Day 3 - Review

Karnataka are closing in on booking yet another Ranji Trophy final stop after dramatically turning the tables on the third day. It has been a long and hard see-saw battle between the sides, where Saurashtra too had their share of moments when they held the upper hand, but Karataka cruised into control mode with a brilliant lower order partnership towards the end of Day 3.

Resuming at 227/7, it didn’t take long for Manish Pandey and company to rattle Saurashtra and take a considerably good first innings lead. They took a 39-run lead heading into their innings with Ronit More registering sensational figures of 6/60.

Mayank Agarwal, who recently made his debut for the Indian side, gave Karnataka a solid start with an authoritative 46 off 77 balls. Yet, he lacked support for a major part of his innings apart from adding 39 runs with skipper Pandey. Prerak Mankad found great success with the new balls as he picked up K Siddarth and Karun Nair in quick succession.

Shreyas Gopal does it again with the bat

After an impressive knock in the first innings, Shreyas Gopal once again showcased his batting prowess under immense pressure. With Mayank getting dismissed, the team seemed to be in a predicament at 108/5, but Gopal hung in at one end and started accumulating runs.

Jaydev Unadkat joined the party for Saurashtra as Karnataka at one point found themselves 176/8. With the overall lead just over 210, it seemed like they were on the back foot as the track was still looking pretty decent to bat. However, Mithun and Gopal ensured there were no more casualties before stumps.

With Gopal completing a fifty and the duo adding 61 runs for the 9th wicket, Karnataka finished day 3 at 237/8. They currently have a 276-run lead and are in a good position to take that number well beyond 300. Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and Unadkat picked up three wickets each for the visiting side and will have a task in hand early tomorrow on what promises to be an action-packed Sunday.

Brief Scores

Karnataka vs Saurashtra

Karnataka first innings: 275 in 100.3 overs (Manish Pandey 62, Shreyas Gopal 87, Srinivas Sharath 83*; Jaydev Unadkat 4/56)

Saurashtra first innings: 236 all out in 71 overs (Snell Patel 85; Ronit More 6/60)

Karnataka second innings: 237/8 in 78 overs (Shreyas Gopal 61*, Mayank Agarwal 46; Jaydev Unadkat 3/35)

Saurashtra lead by 276 runs

Kerala vs Vidarbha

Kerala first innings: 106 all out in 28.4 overs (Vishnu Vinod 37*; Umesh Yadav 7/48, Rajneesh Gurbani 3/38)

Vidarbha first innings: 208 all out in 52.4 overs (Faiz Fazal 75, Wasim Jaffer 34; Sandeep Warrier 5/57)

Kerala second innings: 91 all out in 24.5 overs (Arun Karthik 36; Umesh Yadav 5/31, Yash Thakur 4/28)

Vidarbha won by an innings and 11 runs

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