Smaran's hundred, Karun's 95 give Karnataka control over Chandigarh

Hubballi (Karnataka), Nov 16 (PTI) Promising Ravichandran Smaran made an unbeaten hundred and Karun Nair a 95 as Karnataka reached a strong 298 for five against Chandigarh on the opening day of their Elite Group B Ranji Trophy match here on Sunday.

Smaran (110 batting) had Shreyas Gopal (38 batting) for company at stumps at the KSCA Stadium.

This is Smaran's second successive three-figure mark after making an unbeaten 220 against Kerala in the last match at Mangalapuram.

Karnataka were on the back foot initially, having lost skipper Mayank Agarwal, KV Aneesh and KL Shrijith for just 64 on the board.

As they have done so often this season, Smaran and Karun rescued Karnataka, milking 119 runs for the fourth wicket.

Just as Karun (95, 164b) was motoring towards another hundred, the right-hander was trapped in front of the wicket by left-arm spinner Tanpreet Singh.

Left-arm spinner Nishunk Birla (2/85) soon jettisoned Abhinav Manohar as Karnataka slipped to 210 five to face a mini crisis.

But the left-handed Smaran, who brought up his hundred off 165 balls in 219 minutes, found a strong-willed partner in Shreyas.

The pair added 88 runs for the unbroken sixth wicket stand to take Karnataka close to the 300-run mark.

Brief scores: Hubballi: Karnataka: 298/5 in 90 overs (R Smaran 110 batting, Karun Nair 95, Shreyas Gopal 38 batting) vs Chandigarh.

At Mullanpur: Maharashtra: 275/5 in 88 overs (Arshin Kulkarni 133, Prithvi Shaw 74; Gurnoor Brar 2/86, Mayank Markande 2/35) vs Punjab.

At Rajkot: Saurashtra: 317/4 in 90 overs (Prerak Mankad 88 batting, Arpit Vasavada 81, Jay Gohil 68; Vasuki Koushik 1/37) vs Goa.

At Indore: Kerala: 246/7 in 90 overs (Baba Aparajith 81 batting, Abijith Praveen 60, Abhishek Nair 47; Saransh Jain 3/38, Arshad Khan 3/45) vs Madhya Pradesh. PTI UNG AH AH