Press Trust of India
Mumbai, March 11: Having already surpassed Tamil Nadu handsomely on the basis of first innings lead, the defending champions, Karnataka are coasting to an outright win against their perennial rivals after reducing them to 113 for the loss of three wickets at stumps on the fourth day of the final.
Earlier in the day, Karnataka posted a massive total of 762 in their first innings. The defending champions lost their triple centurion Karun Nair (328, 560 b, 46×4, 1×6) in the first session but only after he had gone past Baroda batsman Gul Mohammad’s 319 against Holkar in 1946-47 by flicking Laxmipathy Balaji’s delivery behind square and became the highest scorer in a Ranji final.
However, skipper R Vinay Kumar (105, 319 b, 10×4, 3×3) carried on and slammed his second Ranji century. He was well assisted by Sreenath Aravind (50) and added 83 runs for the ninth wicket to take the score past 700.
He became the first captain to score a ton in a Ranji final, besides becoming only the second player after Vijay Hazare to hit a century and scalp five wickets in the summit clash.
Tamil Nadu’s second innings started on a disastrous note, as Shreyas Gopal (2/36) and Vinay Kumar sent back the openers leaving Tamil Nadu gasping for breath. The challengers are still 515 runs behind and from here then can only hope to salvage a draw.
Brief scores:
Tamil Nadu: 134 & 113 for three (Baba Aparajith batting 36; Shreyas Gopal 2/36). Karnataka 762 (Karun Nair 328, R Vinay Kumar 105 n o; Malolan Rangarajan 3/183). Match to continue
