Ranji Trophy: Karnataka take command on Vinay Kumar's 100th match

Vidarbha, November 12: On a day when skipper R Vinay Kumar appeared in his 100th Ranji Trophy match, Karnataka wrested control of the proceedings on the first day of their Elite Group A match against Vidarbha at the VCA Stadium on Monday (November 12).

Vidarbha batted by choice but could not find their progress smooth against Karnataka, ending up with an end of the day score of 245/8. Of course, the focus was on Vinay because of the landmark which was magnified by the fact that only two cricketers had achieved it in the past. Sunil Joshi (117) and Brijesh Patel (104) are the other members of the Club 100 from Karnataka.

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But it was pacer Abhimanyu Mithun and left-arm spinner J Suchith inflicted the most damage sharing six wickets equally among them. Vinay took a wicket that of Apoorv Wankhede but he ceded ground to his team-mates, perhaps savouring the big occasion.

Former Karnataka batsman Ganesh Satish (57, 141b, 7x4) was the leading run-getter for Vidarbha. Veteran Wasim Jaffer got a start (41, 102b, 4x4) but could not build on it as Suchith and Mithun struck at regular intervals to reduce the home side to 201 for eight.

But the visitors met with an unexpected road block in the form of the ninth wicket stand between Shrikant Wagh (37 batting, 58b, 6x4) and Akshay Wakhare (7, 50b, 1x). They batted out nearly 16 overs adding 44 runs that gave a touch of respectability to Vidarbha's total at close.

Karnataka will be looking to pluck the two remaining wickets on Day 2 giving away nothing substantial and complete their dominance with the bat when their turn come.

Brief scores: Vidarbha:245/8 in 87 overs (Ganesh Satish 57, Wasim Jaffer 41, Shrikant Wagh (batting) 37, A V Wadkar 31; A Mithun 3/32, J Suchith 3/25) vs Vidarbha.