Indore: Manish Pandey (92 not out) remained on course for his 14th first class century as Karnataka came up with a splendid batting effort against Madhya Pradesh by ending the day two of their Ranji Trophy Group A contest at 214 for three, here Wednesday.
Karnataka bowled out for Madhya Pradesh for 303, allowing the hosts to add only 33 runs to their overnight total 270 for seven as paceman Abhimanyu Mithun took all the remaining three wickets.
Karnataka batsmen were hardly troubled by the home bowlers even as openers Robin Uthappa (31) and Ravikumar Samarth (57) squandered good starts.
In the 43-run opening stand, Uthappa scored 31, which had four shots to the fence. His innings was cut short by Ankita Sharma, who trapped the shot-maker.
Kunal Kapoor (1) departed early but Pandey was solid from the one end and he was ably supported by Samrath and Karun Nair, who was batting with him on 30.
With Samrath, Pandey raised a 102-run stand for the third wicket. The stand was broken by Jalaj Saxena, who had Samarth caught by Puneet Datey. Samrath's knock came off 150 balls with the help of eight boundaries.
Pandey kept the other end tight, scoring an unbeaten 92 off 179 balls, hitting eight boundaries. With Nair he has already stitched a 64-run stand for the fourth wicket and their was now trailing the hosts by 89 runs.
Brief Scores:
Madhya Pradesh 1st innings: 303 all out in 99.2 overs (Aditya Shrivastava 91, Naman Ojha 54; Abhimanyu Mithun 4/66).
Karnataka 1st innings: 214 for 3 in 78 overs.(Manish Pandey 92 batting, Ravikumar Samarth 57; Puneet Datey 1/32).
