Rest of India XI were trailing by 224 runs with nine wickets in hand at stumps on Day 1 after the Varun Aaron-led attack bowled Karnataka out for 244 in Irani Cup. The pacer claimed four of the top five batsmen and returned with two more wickets to wrap-up the innings in the last session.
Then, on the first ball of the ROI innings, Vinay Kumar sent Unmukt Chand’s off-stump cart-wheeling to leave the opposition on zero for one. Jiwanjot Singh then joined Paras Dogra in the middle and took the side to stumps at 20 for one in Bangalore.
Earlier, asked to bat, Karnataka lost opener, Robin Uthappa with just 26 runs on the board. The top-run getter of the 2014-15 Ranji Trophy season departed nicking Aaron to the wicketkeeper for 10.
40 runs later, R Samarth edged Rishi Dhawan to Naman Ojha behind the wickets and made way for Manish Pandey. The middle-order bat, who then joined Mayank Agarwal bided his time at the crease and helped take the team to Lunch at 90 for two.
However, on the third ball off the second session, Aaron forced an edge off Pandey’s bat through to the wicketkeeper to leave the defending champions on 90 for three. The hero of Karnataka’s Ranji Trophy triumph last week, Karun Nair, then came to the crease.
While Shardul Thakur and Aaron hit the deck hard, Nair bided his time in the middle. Agarwal who was already past his fifty slammed the Mumbai bowler for a couple of boundaries to ease the pressure and add to the tally. But in the fifth over of the session after striking Aaron to the fence in front of the wicket, he departed edging the pacer to Naman.
Continuing to score with ease, Nair reached his half-century early in the third session and Reddy soon followed suit. However, the debutant returned to the pavilion later in the same over after posting his maiden fifty. The short delivery from Thakur skimmed past the edge and Ojha took his fifth catch as the ball travelled down the leg-side.
Nair followed him to the dressing-room off the next ball. The middle-order handed a straight-forward catch to Chand at second slip off Aaron to return to the dressing room. On the last ball of the over, the pacer trapped Vinay lbw to claim his fifth wicket of the day.
16 runs later, Pragyan Ojha struck to send back Shreyas Gopal and a ball later also accounted for Sreenath Aravind while Aaron claimed Abhimanyu Mithun in the next to bowl Karnataka out.
By: BCCI
