Karnataka in driver’s seat

Bengaluru: Karnataka pacer V Koushik (3/11) put his team in a commanding position against Gujarat on the third day of their Ranji Trophy clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. At stumps, the hosts were 171/7 in 68 overs, ahead by 61 runs.
In fact, there was pressure on the bowling unit to deliver without the injured speedster Prasidh Krishna.Koushik, who scalped four wickets in the first innings, took on the mantle, removing the big wicket of Priyank Panchal and Het Patel, reducing Gujarat to 52/4.
But their middle-order came to the rescue with MA Hingrajia scoring a half-ton (56, 135b, 5x4). His 57-run fifth-wicket partnership with Kshitij Patel helped Gujarat recover a little before the latter was dismissed by the in-form Koushik.
Umang Kumar (29 batting) joined Hingrajia in the middle, and the slow-left arm Rohit Kumar brought the sixth wicket association to an end. Rohit sent back Hingrajia and Ripal Patel off successive deliveries to help Karnataka strengthen their grip on the contest. CT Gaja and Umang will resume the final day on Monday.
Earlier, Karnataka, who started the day on 328/5, lost wickets in a heap and were packed up for 374 with Prasidh not coming out to bat. Manish Pandey could only add 22 runs to his overnight score of 56 to be out for 88, helping Mayank Agarwal’s men take a 110-run first-innings lead.
SCOREBOARDGujarat (I Innings): 264Karnataka (I Innings; o/n: 328/5): Manish Pandey c Kshitij b Vaghela 88, SS Sateri lbw Nagwaswalla 31, V Vyshak c Het b Gaja 0, Rohit Kumar AC c Hingrajia b Desai 5, Koushik V (not out) 0, Prasidh Krishna (absent hurt). Extras (LB-3, W-1, NB-2) 6.Total (for 9 wkts; 106.2 overs) 374.Fall of wickets: 5-298, 6-348, 7-349, 8-370, 9-374.Bowling: CT Gaja 23-3-65-3, Arzan Nagwaswalla 20-3-75-1, Siddharth Desai 33-6-113-2, Ripal Patel 3-0-13-0, Rinkesh Vaghela 25.2-4-95-2, Manan Hingrajia 2-0-10-0.Gujarat (II Innings): Priyank Panchal c Sateri b Koushik 4, Sunpreet Bagga c Padikkal b Shubhang 27, SA Desai b Vyshak 0, Het Patel lbw Koushik 6, MA Hingrajia c Padikkal b Rohit 56, Kshitij Patel c Sateri b Koushik 26, Umang Kumar (batting) 29, Ripal Patel c Pandey b Rohit Kumar 0, CT Gaja (batting) 8. Extras (B-9, LB-1, W-1, NB-4) 15.Total (for 7 wkts; 68 overs) 171.Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-12, 3-21, 4-52, 5-109, 6-145, 7-145. Bowling: Koushik V 14-10-11-3, V Vyshak 14-2-27-1, Shubhang Hedge 23-4-70-1, Rohit Kumar AC 13-2-42-2, SJ Nikin Jose 1-0-5-0, Mayank Agarwal 2-1-4-0, Devdutt Padikkal 1-0-2-0.