Karnataka continued to dominate Uttarakhand in Ranji Trophy 2022-23 quarterfinal clash. On Day 3, Shreyas Gopal remained unbeaten for 161 as Karnataka posted a mammoth total of 606 in their first innings to take a 490-run lead.
Batting ahead of wicketkeeper-batter Srikar Bharat, Gopal scored his first century after five years too put Karnataka in driver’s seat. It is also his career-best score. He played a total of 288 deliveries to score 161 runs. His knock was studded with 16 fours and one six.
Four Karnataka batters crossed the fifty-run mark but failed to score a century. Openers Smarath R and skipper Mayank Agarwal registered scores of 82 and 83 on Day 2 whereas Devdutt Padikkal and Nikin Jose scored in sixties. Only no.10 and no.11 batters failed to cross the double-digit mark as Karnataka piled on runs against hapless Uttarakhand.
Uttarakhand face an uphill task as they have already lost three wickets for 106 and trail by 384 runs with two days of play left at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. Both Dikshanshu Negi and Swapnil Singh remained unbeaten for 27 on Day 3. Gopal bowled four overs as well, bowled one maiden and conceded just three runs in the last session.
Earlier Uttarakhand got all out for 116 on Day 1. 22-year-old pacer M Venkatesh took five wickets for 35 runs. Gopal did not get to bowl in the first innings.
Karnataka are expected to register a massive win by an innings to advance to the semi-final. The Agarwal-led side is likely to wrap up Uttarakhand’s innings on Day 4.
No IPL contract for Gopal
After staying at Rajasthan Royals (RR) for four seasons, the 29-year-old was picked by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for Rs 75 lakh in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction. In the previous edition, he got to play just one match where he took one wicket for 34 runs and scored nine runs from seven deliveries. He was released by SRH before the auction. He did not find a franchise and remained unsold.
Gopal has 49 wickets from 49 games at an average of 26.16 including a four-fer. In IPL 2019, he took a hat-trick against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in a rain-curtailed affair. His three wickets were skipper Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Marcus Stoinis.
