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Captain Mayank Agarwal led from the front when Karnataka needed him the most as he struck a resilient century to steer his team to 229/5 against Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy semi-final clash on Wednesday (February 8).
Mayank held one end together when Karnataka were wobbling at 112/5 after 40.3 overs while batting first. But the star Indian opener were in no mood to give up as he struck a resilient yet unbeaten 110 to steady Karnataka's boat after a poor start. Mayank found an able partner in Srinivas Sharath, who contributed with an unbeaten 58 as the duo weaved together a robust 117-run partnership for the sixth wickets.
Karnataka played a total of 87 overs before the close of Day 1. Agarwal's sturdy knock came off 246 balls in which he deposited 11 boundaries and a maximum while Sharath faced 143 deliveries in which he smashed four boundaries.
Kushang Patel was pick of the bowlers for Saurashtra on Day 1 as he picked two wickets while Chetan Sakariya and Prerak Mankad snared a wicket apiece.
Karnataka did not have the best of starts as they lost opener Ravikumar Samarth in the sixth over, caught by Vishvaraj Jadeja off the bowling of Patel.
New man in Devdutt Padikkal didn't last long, caught by Sheldon Jackson off Sakariya's bowling in the opening delivery of the ninth over.
Agarwal and Nikin Jose (18) shared 47 runs for the next wicket before the latter nicked a Patel delivery to Harvik Desai behind the stumps in the 29th over.
Manish Pandey didn't trouble the scorers much, becoming Mankad's scalp and overs later Shreyas Gopal (15) became the victim of a run out as Karnataka slumped to 112 for 5.
But Agarwal and Sharath joined hands and played sensibly without taking any risks to deny Saurashtra further inroads.
