Ranji Trophy: Sweet 17 for Uthappa as he equals Dravid

Hubballi :

Robin Uthappa slammed his third straight century of the season while Mayank Agarwal brought up his maiden n as Karnataka rev first-class ton as Karnataka revelled in a run feast against Delhi on the first day of the Ranji Trophy group ‘A’ match at the KSCA Rajnagar stadium, here on Monday.

Put in to bat after the visitors misread what appeared to be a seamer-friendly wicket, the second-wicket duo forged an imposing 236-run partnership to put the defending champions in a position of strength. At close, Karnataka were at a commanding 3583 with Manish Pandey (31) and Karun Nair (31) holding fort.

Uthappa, who scored 160 against Rajasthan and 148 against Odisha in the previous games, equalled Rahul Dravid’s record of 17 Ranji trophy centuries. Agarwal brought up his half-century just before lunch while Uthappa too cruised to 40 off just 51 deliveries as the hosts went into the break at 120 for 1.

Shortly after lunch, Uthappa targeted left-arm spinner Manan Sharma to bring up his fifty. Mayank too came up with a couple of cover drives to reach his maiden ton that was laced with 17 boundaries.

With the pacers finding it tough, Gambhir brought offspinner Dhruv Shorey but the move backfired as Uthappa smashed the tweaker for 32 runs in the over as he clobbered him for four sixes and two boundaries.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> Sports> TOI CRI / by Sunil Subbaiah, TNN / November 24th, 2015

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