INDORE, Feb 19 (PTI): Karnataka virtually assured themselves a place in the semifinals of the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament after setting a near impossible 683 runs target in front of Assam in their second innings on the fourth and penultimate day of the quarterfinal tie, here today.
Resuming their second innings at the overnight score of 137 for two, Karnataka rode on opener Ravikumar Samarth�s (178) second first-class century, Robin Uthappa�s 77 off 172 balls and Karun Nair�s 49 to post 415 for five in 115 overs before declaring their second innings, thereby setting an improbable target of 683 runs in front of Assam for an outright win.
Assam were 32 for no loss in eight overs at stumps and still need a mammoth 651 runs to win on the final day of the match tomorrow.
Pallav Das was batting on 25 in the company of skipper Dheeraj Jadhav on 7.
Karnataka had already taken an upper hand in the match by notching up a lead of 267 runs in the first innings.
Asked to bat, Karnataka scored 452 all out in their first innings before bundling out Assam for a paltry 185.
SCORECARD
Karnataka 1st innings: 452
Assam 1st innings: 185
Karnataka 2nd innings: R Samarth c Arun Karthik b AK Das 178, KL Rahul c Roy b Syed Mohammad 73, MK Pandey b K Das 0, RV Uthappa b Syed Mohammad 77, KK Nair lbw b AK Das 48, SA Bhavane not out 14, S Gopal not out 17. Extras: (b 4, lb 4) 8. Total: (5 wickets dec; 115 overs) 415. Fall of wickets: 1-124, 2-125, 3-298, 4-383, 5-384. Bowling: AN Ahmed 8-0-30-0, K Das 32-7-93-1, AK Das 19-2-63-2, J Syed Mohammad 26-2-85-2, PP Das 9-2-37-0, S Purkayastha 20-1-92-0, G Sharma 1-0-7-0.
Assam 2nd innings (target: 683 runs): PP Das not out 25, DS Jadhav not out 7. Extras: 0. Total: (0 wickets; 8 overs) 32. Bowling: S Gopal 1-0-8-0, R Vinay Kumar 3-1-10-0, A Mithun 3-1-13-0, S Aravind 1-0-1-0.
