BENGALURU: All-rounder Shreyas Gopal stood tall with a career-best 161 not out as Karnataka piled more misery on Uttarakhand with a massive first innings lead of 490 runs in their Ranji Trophy quarter-final here on Thursday.
At close on day three, Uttarakhand were 106/3, still 384 runs in arrears with Dikshanshu Negi and Swapnil Singh remaining unbeaten on identical scores of 27 in an unbroken 46-run partnership.
Vidwath Kaverappa (2/22) claimed the Uttarakhand opening duo of Avneesh Sudha (4) and Jiwanjot Singh (24), while debutant M Venkatesh dismissed former Delhi batter Kunal Chandela, who had played in their 2016-17 final against Vidarbha.
Uttarakhand also have wicketkeeper-batter Aditya Tare, the Ranji Trophy-winning former Mumbai skipper in waiting but it seems a lost battle against the eight-time champions Karnataka who are eyeing their first semi-final appearance since 2020.
Resuming on 474/5, Karnataka had their strategy clear as they batted along with no declaration in sight.
Overnight centurion Gopal, who on Wednesday slammed his first Ranji Trophy century since 2017-18, continued from where he left and in the process completed 3000 runs in first-class cricket.
Gopal lost his partner BR Sharath early while Krishnappa Gowtham fell before lunch but the Karnataka all-rounder stayed on course and completed his 150. He along with Krishnappa Gowtham put together an 85-run partnership for the seventh wicket.
Swapnil Singh finally gave the breakthrough for Uttarakhand before Abhay Negi returned to clean up the tail en route to his 4/109 with wickets of Vidwath Kaverappa and Vijaykumar Vyshak.
Brief Scores:
Uttarakhand -- 116 and 106/3; 41 overs (Dikshanshu Negi 27 batting, Swapnil Singh 27 batting; Vidwath Kaverappa 2/22).
Karnataka -- 606; 162.5 overs (Shreyas Gopal 161 not out, Mayank Agarwal 83, Ravikumar Samarth 82, Devdutt Padikkal 69, Nikin Jose 62; Abhay Negi 4/109, Mayank Mishra 3/117, Swapnil Singh 2/118). Uttarakhand trail by 384 runs.
