Double tons by Karun, Smaran, followed by good work by pacers give Karnataka edge over Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 2 (PTI) Experienced batter Karun Nair and promising Ravichandran Smaran made double hundreds as Karnataka gained upper hand over Kerala on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match here on Sunday.

Karun (233, 389 balls, 25x4, 2x6) and Smaran (220 not out, 390 balls, 16x4, 3x6) shared a massive stand of 343 runs for the fourth wicket as Karnataka declared their first innings at 586 for five.

Karnataka pacers Vidwath Kaverappa and Vysakh Vijayakumar then struck with the new ball to reduce Kerala to 21 for three at stumps. The hosts still trail by 565 runs.

Karun, overnight 142, continued to pile runs in domestic cricket after getting dropped from the India squad post the tour to England.

This was his second straight three-digit score after making an unbeaten 174 against Goa at Shimoga a few days back.

Smaran, who started the day on 88, hit his first hundred of the season and then swelled into a double ton, second across 11 First-Class matches.

Karnataka and Kerala both need an outright win to reach the upper echelons of the points table after two underwhelming outings in the first two rounds.

At Nashik, rain and wet outfield restricted the action on the day to just 12 overs, and Saurashtra were 61 for one at close.

The entire first day’s play on Saturday was washed out because of rain.

Brief Scores: At Thiruvananthapuram: Karnataka: 586/5 declared in 167 overs (Karun Nair 233, Ravichandran Smaran 220 not out, KL Srijith 65; NP Basil 2/101) vs Kerala: 21/3 in 10 overs (Vidwath Kaverappa 2/7).

At Indore: Madhya Pradesh: 384/8 in 106 overs (Harpreet Singh Bhatia 116, Venkatesh Iyer 65, Aryan Pandey 40; Jagjit Singh Sandhu 5/69) vs Chandigarh.

At New Chandigarh: Punjab 325 all out in 135.4 overs (Uday Saharan 126, Salil Arora 63; Deepraj Goankar 3/34, Darshan Misal 3/72) vs Goa: 92 for no loss in 24 overs (Suyansh Prabhudesai 58 batting, Manthan Khutkar 32 batting).

At Nashik: Saurashtra: 61/1 in 12 overs (Harvik Desai 28 batting, Jay Gohil 18 batting). PTI UNG PDS PDS