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Pandey slams century; Dravid misses out

Special Correspondent

— Photo: Sandeep Saxena

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY: Faiz Fazal’s heart would have been in his mouth as Dinesh Karthik took off after the Railways opener offered a chance off R. Ashwin.

MEERUT: Manish Pandey needed a timely innings of substance to show that he was more than just a twenty20 player. On Tuesday, the 20-year-old came good and that too, in the company of skipper Rahul Dravid, and helped lift Karnataka from a precarious 27 for three in the first hour to a formidable 372 for five at stumps against Uttar Pradesh on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Elite league match here.

Pandey, best remembered for being the first Indian to score a century in the Indian Premier League this summer, strung together a mature unbeaten knock of 194 after raising a stroke-filled 273-run fourth-wicket stand with Dravid, who was unlucky to be run-out for 97.

Early advantage

In the first hour, UP medium pacers made the most of the moisture in the pitch and conditions that assisted seam movement.

Thereafter, Pandey and Dravid — dropped at 12 and 27 respectively, off an unlucky R.P. Singh — made sure UP rued the missed opportunities.

Ironic as it may appear, the Nainital-born Pandey enthralled the crowd of his native state by launching a relentless attack on the home bowlers. He hit most of his 27 boundaries in the midwicket region and in front of square on the offside. His penchant for the pull also resulted in the lone six off the day, over midwicket.

Brilliant knock

Dravid, as is his wont, was style personified and scored with élan without ever letting the bowlers call the shots. Barring a classic on-drive that crossed the ropes, Dravid got his other 13 boundaries, in the arc between third-man and cover. The pick of Dravid’s boundaries was the square-cut that reminded of the legendary G.R. Viswanath.

However Dravid was not destined to reach 100. He failed to regain the crease at the non-striker’s end after being sent back by Pandey.

Bangar sizzles

A 37-year-old gave some lessons in professionalism to a 16-year-old debutant at the Karnail Singh Stadium here on Tuesday. Sanjay Bangar, in crafting his 10th first-class century, was a picture of quality right through as Railways finished the first day of its four-day Ranji Trophy super league match against Tamil Nadu at 242 for four.

It was a stand out show by Bangar on a day when R. Aushik Srinivas made an impression with his slow bowling.

Bangar was flawless, barring an appeal for a catch when he was seven short of a century.

The scores:

Karnataka — 1st innings: K.B. Pawan lbw b Shrivastava 15, Robin Uthappa lbw b R. P. Singh 0, Amit Verma lbw b Bhuvaneshwar Kumar 5, Rahul Dravid (run out) 97, Manish Pandey (batting) 194, Thilak Naidu b Bhuvaneshwar 12, B. Akhil (batting) 17, Extras (b-5, lb-13, n-12, w-2) 32; Total (for five wickets in 90 overs) 372.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-27, 3-27, 4-300, 5-327.

Uttar Pradesh bowling: R.P. Singh 19-3-75-1, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar 24-3-97-2, Shalabh Srivastava 17-0-59-1, Piyush Chawla 13-1-71-0, Praveen Gupta 12-3-32-0, Parwinder Singh 5-1-20-0.

Other scores: Super League:

At New Delhi: Railways 242 for four in 94 overs (F. Fazal 70, S. Bangar 111 batting). At Chandigarh: Punjab 242 for nine in 86 overs (Ravi Inder Singh 104, A. Agarkar four for 41) vs. Mumbai.

At Vadodara: Delhi 300 for two in 90 overs (S. Dhawan 122 batting, G. Chhabra 65, R. Bhatia 70 batting) vs. Baroda.

At Hyderabad: Hyderabad 237 for six in 90 overs (T. Suman 45, Abhinav Kumar 70 batting, S. Qadri 47) vs. Himachal Pradesh.

At Ranchi: Jharkhand 299 for five in 88 overs (S.S. Tiwary 136, Rajiv Kumar 75) vs. Tripura.

At Pune: Maharashtra 179 in 61.2 overs (S. Atitkar 44, A. Ansari 52, Ranadeb Bose five for 67) vs. Bengal 52 for two in 28 overs.

Plate:

At Guwahati: Rajasthan 228 in 88.1 overs (G. Khoda 106, S. Bahutule four for 66, A. Konwar four for 46) vs. Assam one for no loss in one over.

At Indore: Haryana 308 for five in 90 overs (R. Dewan 71, Sunny Singh 146 batting, Sumeet Sharma 45) vs. Madhya Pradesh.

At Ahmedabad: Gujarat 237 for seven in 91 overs (Parthiv Patel 83, R. Bhatt 46, Dhiraj Singh four for 88) vs. Orissa.

At Thalassery: Andhra 215 for five in 90 overs (Y. Venugopala Rao 69, B. Sumanth 58 batting) vs. Kerala.

At Nagpur: Goa 286 for five in 90 overs (S. Sriram 50, R.J. Pinto 46, A. Ratra 84 batting) vs. Vidarbha.

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