Bengaluru: Two youngsters with contrasting styles, yet driven by a similar determination.
While one bought his style to the fore, the other showcased his flair. When the twosome took charge of the crease, it was only just that entertaining show unravelled.
True to form and living up to expectations, maverick Manish Pandey (161) and young gun K.L. Rahul (92) forged a 149-run third wicket partnership to help Karnataka tighten the noose around Punjab on the second day of their Group A Ranji Trophy contest, here on Sunday .
Riding on the young turks display of sublime batting, Karnataka surged to a 193run lead after putting up 367 for 7 in 117 overs, clearly gaining the upper hand, after Punjab had scraped to 174 on the opening day .
Pandey and Rahul, who have led the batting attack for Karnataka this season with two half-centuries and a century each before this game, delighted the holiday crowd.
With an overnight score of 59/2, Pandey and Rahul were cautious in the morning. As the sun beat down at the KSCA Stadium here, they did well not to go for the big hits and instead smartly rotated the strike between them.
Rahul missed out on a century , for the second time this season after being dismissed for 98 in Rohtak against Haryana. The 21year-old, who looked set to bring in a deserving three digit score, went for a sweep but missed it and the ball hit wicketkeeper Gitansh Khera and rebounded on to the stumps with Rahul short of the crease. It was heartbreaking.
Stuart Binny (19), who came in next, proved good company for Pandey albeit for a short while, adding 52 for the fifth wicket.
Pandey showed his maturity, yet it was laced with resolve. His 50 came off 103 balls but once that was done, the 24-year-old was his fluent self, punishing the loose deliveries. And the power with which he struck the ball ensured that the slow outfield did not come in his way of scoring boundaries.
Punjab skipper Mandeep Singh would have been cursing himself, after dropping Pandey at slip, when the latter was on 59.
Pandey's mood could be gauged by the fact that he brought up his 50, 100 and 150 with either a boundary or a maximum. If his first fifty was slow, his second was in sharp contrast.
He went from 87 to 101 with a six and a four off debutant spinner Vinay Choudhary and then welcomed Gurkeerat with a six to complete his 12th firstclass 100.
Pandey's 397-minute stay at the crease came to an end when he attempted to cut a Gurkeerat delivery which kept low, only to be bowled.
Pandey's 266-ball 161 included 15 hits to the fence and three over it.
Vinay (29), a handy bat, was aggressive from the word go and with Abhimanyu Mithun at the other end saw the home side through the day .
With three points safely in their kitty on virtue of the first innings lead and two days to go, Karnataka, buoyant by their batsmen's stellar show will look to their bowlers to complete the show.
SCOREBOARD Punjab I innings: 174 all out Karnataka I innings (O/n 59/2): K.L Rahul st Gitansh Khera b Gurkeerat Singh 92, Manish Pandey b Gurkeerat Singh 161, C.M Gautam lbw VRV Singh 2, Stuart Binny lbw S. Sharma 19, Karun Nair b Manpreet Gony 21, Vinay Kumar (batting) 29, Abhimanyu Mithun (batting) 8, Extras: 13 (lb 6, nb6, w1). Total (7wkts; 117 overs) 367 FoW: 3-189, 4-199, 5-251, 6-319, 7-354 Bowling: Sandeep Sharma 29-3-861; VRV Singh 22-4-60-1; Taruwar Kohli 11-2-42-0; Manpreet Gony 233-70-3; Vinay Choudhary 23-3-69-0; Gurkeerat Singh 9-0-34-2.
QUOTE-UNQUOTE MANISH PANDEY ON THE BIG KNOCK: I was really focussed. I did not score much in the last game in Lahli. So I wanted to cover up for that. 160 is a decent score I think. I felt good and confident.
ON THE DISMISSAL: I was a little tired and I should not have got out like that but it happens.
PARTNERSHIP WITH RAHUL: It was a crucial partnership. We lost a few wickets early so Rahul and I had a chat last night and we discussed that we would stay at the wicket. We have been scoring runs for the side so we took it upon ourselves to stay out there.
ON DEBUTANT KARUN NAIR: Karun is a very good player. He did not look like a debutant. The way he was striking the ball was really good. I think he was good with his job.?It was an unlucky dismissal but a really good job nonetheless.
RANJI ROUND-UP Group A At Mumbai: Mumbai (O/N 242/2): 501 for 9 decl in 157 overs (Wasim Jaffer 143, Hiken Shah 170, Sushant Marathe 27, Suryakumar Yasav 28, Siddesh Lad 39, Javed Khan 36; Basant Mohanty 2-73, Basant Kumar 3-117) vs Odisha 79 for 3 in 21 overs (Natraj Behera batting 45, Abhilash. Mallick batting 28) At Ahmedabad: Haryana (O/N 266/2) 573 for 6 del in 171 runs (Sunny Singh 201, Rahul Dewan 68, Sachin Rana 102, Nitin Saini (not out) 106, Amit Mshra 61, Rush Kalaria 3-125 ) vs Gujarat 27 for 1 in seven overs At Delhi: Vidarbha: 88 all out in 31.1 overs vs Delhi (O/N 96/2): 448 for 9 in 138.5 overs (Gautam Gambhir 49, Unmukt Chand 37, Mithun Manhas 100, Virender Sehwag 56, Rahul Yadav 81, Ashish Nehra 57, Amol Jungade 2-109, Ravi Thakur 2-99, Faiz Fazal 4-48) Group B At Indore: Madhya Pradesh (O/N 342/2) 619 for 8 decl. in 154 overs (Jalaj Saxena 194, Naman Ojha 154, Mohnish Mishra 158 (n.0), Anand Bias 39; Jaydev Unadkat 2-128, Kamlesh Makvana 2-101) vs Saurashtra 49 for no loss in 15 overs.
At Kolkata: Uttar Pradesh: 212 all out & 50 for 3 in 17 overs (Mukul Dagar batting 27, Ashok Dinda 236) vs Bengal (O/N 26/2) 284 allout in 71 overs ( Sudip Chatterjee 66, Laxmi Ratan Shkla 117, Saurasish Lahiri 32; RP Singh 5-77, Amit Mishra 2-85, Imtiaz Ahmed 2-81) At Delhi: Tamil Nadu: (O/N 200/ 8) 246 allout in 101 overs (Ramaswamy Prasanna 117, Subramanium Badrinath 26, Baba Aparajith 29; Anureet Singh 5-67, Ranjitkumar Mali 3-44, Karan Sharma 2-33) vs Railways 152 for 8 in 63 overs (Shivakanth Shulka 25, Karn Sharma 50 n.o; Jagannathan Kaushik3-35, L. Balaji 2-24, M.Mohammed 2-39) At Vadodara: Services: 191 all out & 2/1 vs Baroda: (O/N 62 for no loss) 269 allout in 106.2 overs (Dhiren Mistry 118 , Saurabh Wakaskar 38, Aditya Waghmode 29, Kedar Devdhar 33, Yusuf Pathan 31, Murtuja Vohra 46; Shadab Nazar 3-107, T. Koteswar Rao 2-66, Rahul Kanojia 3-76.)
