Skipper Vinay leads from the front

Hubli: As a bowler, Karnataka skipper R. Vinay Kumar has had a mediocre season so far, but on a sun-baked Monday morning, the 30year-old was in sizzling form as he stroked his maiden first class century .

With the Karnataka middle order failing to fire, the Davanagere all-rounder joined the top order batting revelry to guide the hosts within touching distance of their third consecutive Ranji Trophy Group 'A' victory.

At the KSCA stadium here, Karnataka declared at 505 for 9 in 119.2 overs to take a massive 331-run lead.

In reply there was no reprieve for the struggling Punjab batsmen, who again showed no patience or spirit to take the fight into the opposition's camp and crumbled to 156 for 5 in 51 overs at close.

Gurkeerat Singh was unbeaten on 56 and is the last of the batsmen who can threaten the hosts' victory march.

But the day clearly belonged to Vinay (105 n.o., 183b, 10x4, 1x6)), who missed the last three ties owing to national team commitments and his subsequent wedding. Coming out to bat at the overnight score of 29 with Abhimanyu Mithun (8) for company, Vinay channeled his natural aggression, but at the same time caution was his watchword.

Mithun exited in the third over of the morning, trying to steal an extra run. A well-timed direct hit from Uday Kaul saw him make his way back with the addition of just four to his overnight eight.

Next in was KP Appanna, who proved to be a worthy ally for his skipper as they put on 67 for the ninth wicket.

The fact that Punjab bowlers were bowling wide off the stumps and the boundary was heavily guarded to check the scoring worked for the home side.

What stood out in the partnership were the strokes.

Appanna didn't waste time and both the batsmen put their batting specialists to shade with their stroke play and pull shots.

Vinay brought up his 50 in 75 balls, while their 50 partnership came up off 65 deliveries before Punjab's Vinay Choudhary claimed his maiden first class wicket, bowling Appanna for 45.

The arrival of Sharath slowed the run rate, but that did not stop Vinay from reaching the three fig ures off a single off VRV Singh before the home team declared their innings.

With their backs to the wall, Punjab had nothing going for them a second time around as Mithun and H.S Sharath cornered them with their ability to pro cure extra bounce.

Sharath sent back opener Manan Vohra, while Mithun returned with 3 for 26 to leave the opposition in shreds.

At close, Gurkeerat was their saviour but with the morning bounce a tad diffi cult to negate, the writing is on the wall for Punjab.

With a day's play left, Karnataka's win looks inevitable, but if they can pull off an innings victory, it will help their case, with two matches more to go before the quarterfinals.

SCOREBOARD Punjab I innings 174 all out Karnataka I innings (O/N 367/7): R. Vinay Kumar not out 105, Abhimanyu Mithun run out 12, K.P Appanna b Vinay Choudhary 49, HS Sharath 12, Extras 14 (lb 6, nb 6, w 2) Tootal (9 wkts; 119.2 overs) 505 decl FoW: 8-382, 9-449, Bowling: Sandeep Sharma 33-3-121 1; VRV Singh 27-4-83-1; Taruwar Kohli 11-2-42-0; Manpreet Gony 31 4-98-3; Vinay Choudhary 39-6-112-1; Gurkeerat Singh 15-1-43-2.

Punjab II Innings: Manan Vohra c Ganesh Satish b Sharath 4, Jiwanjot Singh lbw A. Mithun 32, Uday Kaul c Ganesh Satish b Mithun 3, Mandeep Singh c CM Gautam b Mithun12, Taruwar Kohli b Vinay Kumar 30, Gurkeerat Singh 56 batting, Gitansh Khera 3 batting: Extras 6 (4b, 2 nb) Total 13 (5 wkts; 51 overs) 156 FoW: 1-18, 2-21, 3-35, 4-72, 5-115, Bowling: R. Vinay Kumar 10-3-25-1; Abhimanyu Mithun 11-3-26-3; H.S Sharath 13-1-39-1; Stuart Binny 7-1 28-0; K.P Appanna 9-3-25-0; Karun Nair 1-0-9-0.