Ranji Trophy: Siddharth's ton boosts Karnataka against Mumbai

Belagavi, November 20: K V Siddharth hit his maiden First-Class hundred, an unbeaten 104, to guide Karnataka to 263 for 4 against Mumbai on day one of the Elite Group A Ranji Trophy match in Belagavi on Tuesday.

In the absence of mainstays Karun Nair and Manish Pandey, owing to their India A duty, the 25-year-old Siddharth stood up and shouldered the responsibility to help Karnataka recover after the loss of their openers at the KSCA Stadium here. Siddharth, who had a forgettable outing in the game against Vidarbha, made up that failure.

In his 184-ball stay at the wicket so far, the batsman has struck 13 boundaries and two sixes. Electing to bat, the hosts lost both their openers Dega Nischal (27) and Shishir Bhavane (5) cheaply to Mumbai's right-arm medium pacer Shivam Dubey, who grabbed all four wickets that fell to end the day with fine figures of 4 for 32 Karnataka were struggling at 2 for 59 when one-down Mir Kaunain Abbas (64) and Siddharth (104 not out) rallied the innings.

All-rounder Shreyas Gopal led Karnataka because regular skipper R Vinay Kumar sat out due to an injury.

The duo stitched an important 104-run stand for the third wicket to frustrate the visitors with Abbas hitting 10 fours in his 154-ball knock to play the ideal foil to Siddharth.

But when Karnataka looked poised for a big score, Dubey struck again for his third wicket as he removed a well-settled Abbas, who was caught by wicket-keeper Aditya Tare. Stuart Binny (3) also did not last long as he became Dubey's fourth victim.

But then Siddharth found an able partner in Shreyas (47 not out) as the fifth wicket pair ensured that the hosts did not lose another wicket before the day's play ended.

The two have put on an unbroken 88-run stand. For Mumbai apart from Shivam Dubey, the other bowlers had an off day.

Brief scores: Karnataka: 263/4 (Siddharth K V 104 not out, Shreyas Gopal 47 not out, Shivam Dube 4-32) vs Mumbai.