Lucknow, February 16 Skipper Devdutt Padikkal led the way with a career-best double century in first-class cricket as dominant Karnataka posted a formidable 689 for six, compounding Uttarakhand's misery in their Ranji Trophy semifinal here on Monday.
On another productive day for the Karnataka batsmen, Ravichandran Ashwin also contributed with a fluent century, scoring an unbeaten 121 off 191 balls, with 11 boundaries.
Padikkal scored a monumental 232 off 330 balls, smashing 29 fours and three sixes during his long innings.
Resuming at their overnight total of 355 for two, Karnataka began the second day from where they had left on the first evening, with the duo of Padikkal and Karun Nair (60 off 105 balls) stitching together a partnership of 129 runs for the third wicket to continue their team's dominance.
Uttarakhand had the first success of the day when medium-pacer Abhay Negi dismissed Karun with a length delivery that angled away, and the wicketkeeper Saurabh Rawat took the catch.
Padikkal, who had begun the day on 148 not out, continued to play confidently and reached his first-ever double century in 288 balls, with Ashwin also looking good at the other end.
However, after adding 59 runs with Ashwin, Padikkal tried to work a turning Lakshya Raichandani delivery towards fine-leg but only edged it to Rawat behind the stumps, bringing to an end his long stay in the middle amid applause and acknowledgement.
Shreyas Gopal was on his way back for a duck after facing just six balls, bowled by Aditya Rawat as Uttarakhand seemed to have finally found an opening to get to the Karnataka lower order at 485 for five.
However, after his captain's dismissal, Ashwin found an able ally in wicketkeeper Kruthik Krishna, with whom the 22-year-old explosive batter added 123 runs for the sixth wicket to further frustrate Uttarakhand.
Krishna's contribution in the stand was a handsome 60 off 103 balls, and his knock was laced with six fours and a six at the Ekana Cricket Stadium.
Off-spinner Avneesh Sudha broke the stand when the ball took a deflection off Krishna's bat to crash on to his stumps after the batter tried to defend it.
Uttarakhand's agony did not end there though, as seamer Vidyadhar Patil (35 batting off 103 balls) also chipped in with the bat, while adding 81 runs in an unbroken seventh-wicket partnership with Ashwin.
On the first day, India's Test and ODI specialist KL Rahul (141), in the company of Padikkal, set the tone for Karnataka with a magnificent hundred.
