Mayank Agarwal hundred gives Karnataka command

Bengaluru, November 9: Mayank Agarwal compiled another edifice to give Karnataka full command on the first day of their Ranji Trophy Group A match against Delhi at Alur on Thursday (November 9).

After his triple hundred masterpiece against Maharashtra at Pune last week, Agarwal notched up an unbeaten 169 (235b, 23x4, 3x6), the cornerstone of Karnataka's impressive 348 for four at close.

Karnataka had an ordinary start to their innings with opener KL Rahul departing for 9 at the team's score of 21. But what followed was far away from ordinary.

STUMPS, Day 1, Karnataka: 348/4, 90 overs. Mayank Agarwal 169 & Stuart Binny 14. #RanjiTrophy #KARvDEL

— Karnataka Ranji Team (@RanjiKarnataka) November 9, 2017

Agarwal first added 112 runs for the second wicket with Ravikumar Samarth (58, 107, 8x4) to help the hosts paddle through the early jitter.

Samarth fell to Vikas Mishra. But Agarwal stitched together 48 runs with Karun Nair in a third-wicket alliance entirely dominated by the former.

Any hopes a Ishant Sharma-less Delhi entertained to have further inroads into Karnataka line-up were quickly dashed by Agarwal-Manish Pandey duo.

They added 136 runs in close to 32 entertaining overs to keep Karnataka well away from the reach of Delhi.

Pandey (74, 107, 9x4, 2x6) looked well on course for a hundred but an edge to stumper Rishabh Pant, who is leading Delhi in the absence of Ishant, off Navdeep Saini ended his stay.

Agarwal has Stuart Binny for company and by the look of it, Delhi might have to spent some good hours on the field on the morrow as well.