Lucknow, February 18 Ravichandran Srinath scored his second consecutive century as Karnataka continued to dominate Uttarakhand, reaching 299/6 in their second innings on the fourth day of the Ranji Trophy semifinal here on Wednesday, achieving a massive overall lead of 802 runs.
Karnataka secured a place in the final clash against Jammu and Kashmir, gaining a 503-run lead in their first innings after dismissing Uttarakhand for 233 in their first innings during the opening session of the penultimate day.
However, despite this significant lead, Karnataka chose not to enforce the follow-on, instead using the second innings to provide further practice for their batsmen ahead of the final, which begins on February 26.
Karnataka promoted lower-order batsmen like Kruthik Krishna and Shreyas Gopal to give them game time, and Krishna capitalized with a score of 52.
However, Srinath once again led Karnataka's charge, scoring 127 off 149 balls (12x4, 3x6), forming a partnership of 168 runs with KL Rahul (70 batting, 67 balls) for the fifth wicket.
Srinath and Rahul came together after Uttarakhand bowlers had taken four wickets early on, reducing Karnataka to 122/4 in their second innings, although the visitors' lead had already surpassed the 600-run mark.
This was Srinath's second century in the match, following his 135 in the first innings, which helped Karnataka reach a formidable total of 736.
Earlier, Uttarakhand had started the day at 149/5 with Lakshya Raichandani and Saurabh Rawat setting the tone.
However, Karnataka got the first breakthrough of the day in the first over. Pacer Vyshak Vijayakumar dismissed Rawat for 14, and Raichandani soon followed, also falling to the same bowler.
Uttarakhand then slipped to 175/9, but Aditya Rawat made an unbeaten 45 off 38 balls to take his side past 200.
For Karnataka, pacers Vyshak and Vidyadhar Patil took six wickets between them, putting pressure on the opposition.
Brief scores: Karnataka: 736 and 299/6 in 63.5 overs (R Srinath 127, KL Rahul 70 batting, Krurthik Krishna 52; Abhay Negi 2/53) vs Uttarakhand: 233 all out in 88.5 overs (Lakshya Raichandani 55, Aditya Rawat 45 not out; Vyshak Vijayakumar 3/45, Vidyadhar Patil 3/40).
