Ranji Trophy: Samarth, Gowtham hit tons as Karnataka dominate

MYSURU: Centuries by opener Ravikumar Samarth and Krishnappa Gowtham helped Karnataka reach 427 for 6 and secure a 282-run lead at the end of day two in the Ranji Trophy Group A match against Assam on Sunday.

At close of play, Gowtham was batting on 147 while Shreyas Gopal was on 38. Assam was bowled out for 145 in 59.1 overs on the opening day on Saturday.

Gowtham, who bagged four wickets, hammered 10 boundaries and six sixes in his 158-ball knock and was involved in century stands with Stuart Binny and Shreyas Gopal.

Samarth made a well-compiled 123 in 234 balls, studded with 10 boundaries.

Assam fought back in the truncated morning session with Arup Das taking two wickets in an over. Resuming at the overnight score of 77 for no loss, the total had reached 92 when Mayank Agarwal (31) was dismissed by Arup Das. Abhishek Reddy was out off the next delivery for a duck.

Samarth, who was batting on 75 at lunch, reached his century in the post-lunch session, steadied the ship in the company of Mir Kaunain Abbas.

However, the visitors checked Karnataka's progress with wickets of Samarath, Abbas (30) and Chidambaram Gautam (0) in quick time.

K Gowtham, in the company of Stuart Binny, stepped up to frustrate Assam. They added 103 runs for the sixth wicket before Binny was castled by Das soon after tea.

Purkayastha and Das picked three wickets each, but rest of the bowlers were off-colour, to add to Assam's woes.

Brief scores: Assam 145 in 59.1 overs (Gokul Sharma 55, K Gowtham 4 for 20, Shreyas Gopal 3 for 43) vs Karnataka 427 for 6 in 115 overs (K Gowtham 147 batting, Ravikumar Samarth 123, Swarupam Purkayastha 3 for 80).