Ranji Trophy: KL Rahul slams 337 as Karnataka take control

KL Rahul

Bengaluru, Jan 30 (IANS) Opener KL Rahul slammed a triple century (337, 448b, 47x4, 4x6) as defending champions Karnataka flogged Uttar Pradesh attack to pile up 719 for nine declared in their first innings on the second day of the Group A Ranji Trophy league match, here on Friday.

Resuming at their overnight total of 326 for four, Karnataka lost Shreyas Gopal (90, 144b, 15x4), who added just two runs to his score, in the third over of the day, but by then, he had added 180 runs for the fifth wicket with 22-year-old Rahul.

Rahul, who was 150 overnight, hardly missed a beat as he put on 105 runs for the sixth wicket with C.M. Gautam (57, 73, 11x4) and 236 for the seventh with Abrar Kazi (117 not out, 190b, 14x4, 4x6) to ground the UP bowling to the dust.

Rahul's chanceless marathon effort stretching over 671 minutes finally ended when he became one of Praveen Kumar's five victims, but by then, Karnataka had taken firm control of the game.

In the course of becoming the first player from Karnataka to score a triple century in first-class cricket, Rahul went past Barrington Rolland's 283 to become his State's highest run-scorer in an innings in Indian domestic cricket.

Rahul, who celebrated his Test series debut with a century in Australia recently, went on to become the highest scorer ever against Uttar Pradesh in a first-class match, getting past Kedar Jadhav's 327.

The UP bowling was made to look pedestrian though skipper and India discard Praveen Kumar was treated with some respect as the seamer came away with five for 88 in 36 overs. In reply, UP were 10 without loss in the three overs they batted before stumps and face an uphill task to stay in the game with two more days remaining.

Brief scores

At Bangalore, Karnataka vs Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka 1st innings 719 for nine (Lokesh Rahul 337, Abrar Kazi 117; Praveen Kumar 5/80), Uttar Pradesh 10 for no loss in 3 overs.

At Mohali, Punjab vs Odisha, Punjab 1st innings 167 all out, Odisha 1st innings 183 all out (Anurag Sarangi 47; Siddharth Kaul 5/34, Sandeep Sharma 3/65) Punjab 2nd innings 37 for four (Basant Mohanty 2/16).

At Guwahati, Assam vs Andhra, Andhra 1st innings 137 all out, Assam 1st innings 199 for six (JL Mohammad 49 not out; CV Stephen 2/52).

At Mumbai, Mumbai vs Baroda, Mumbai 1st innings 287 all out (Aditya Tare 127 not out, Shrideep Mangela 55; Irfan Pathan 3/47 ) Baroda 1st innings 184 all out (Hardik Pandya 53; Balwinder Sandhu 4/35, Harmeet Singh 4/52).

At Kolkata, Bengal vs Railways, Bengal 1st innings 268, Railways 1st innings 219 for six (Mahesh Rawat 56; Saurasish Lahiri 4/74).

At Porvorim, Goa vs Jharkhand, Jharkhand 1st innings 385 (Saurabh Tiwary 162, Shiv Gautam 76; Vedant Naik 4/67) Goa 1st innings 106 for five (Amogh Desai 55; Rituraj Singh 2/28).

At Valsad, Gujarat vs Maharashtra, Gujarat 1st innings 429 all out (Venugopal Rao 104, Rush Kalaria 106; Anupam Sanklecha 5/93) Maharashtra 1st innings 86 for two (Harshad Khadiwale 50).

At Rohtak, Haryana vs Rajasthan, Haryana 1st innings 373 all out (Himanshu Rana 149, Nitin Saini 100; Aniket Choudhury 5/83).

At Agartala, Himachal Pradesh vs Tripura, Himachal Pradesh 1st innings 314 for four (Paras Dogra 106 not out, Ankit Kalsi 63; MB Murasingh 2/58) Rajasthan 1st innings 180 all out (Ashok Menaria 71; Harshal Patel 6/69) Rajasthan 2nd innings following on 38 for five (Harshal Patel 3/24).

At Indore, Jammu and Kashmir vs Madhya Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh 1st innings 371 (Jalaj Saxena 89, Nama Ojha 85; Ram Dayal 5/65) Jammu and Kashmir 1st innings 175 for eight (Aditya Singh 64; Mihir Hirwani 2/7).

At Kannur, Kerala vs Services, Kerala 1st innings 483 (Sanju Samson 207; Suraj Yadav 5/94) Services 1st innings 85 for three.

At Nagpur, Vidarbha vs Delhi, Vidarbha 1st innings 370 all out (Ganesh Satish 163; Shivam Sharma 5/67) Delhi 1st innings 133 for eight (Shrikant Wagh 4/33, Rakesh Dhruv 3/26).