Manish Pandey (119) hit a timely century and raised a 133-run stand with Ravikumar Samarth (75) as Karnataka reached 287 for eight in their second innings against Mumbai in their Group A Ranji match, which is set for an exciting finish here.
After folding Mumbai first innings at 269 in the morning, Karnataka are now 269 runs ahead of Mumbai, who took a vital lead of 18 runs before yesterday's hero Siddesh Lad fell short of his century by seven runs.
When stumps were drawn, tailenders KP Appanna and HS Sharath were batting on four and six, respectively. Pandey and Samarth kept the hopes alive for Karnataka to go for an outright victory after conceding first innings lead to Mumbai.
Karnataka began their second innings badly as they lost make-shift opener Karun Nair and stop-gap number three batsman Shreyas Gopal, cheaply for seven and zero, leaving the hosts tottering at 32 for two.
Mumbai, however, did not capitalise on the upperhand and lost the opportunity to mount pressure and attack Karnataka batsmen, especially Pandey, whose confidence had dipped after scoring just one in the first innings.
"We should have attacked Karnataka batsmen, especially Pandey after the hosts were struggling at 32 for two. We should have had three slips than two, and placed attacking field," Mumbai Coach Sulakshan Kulkarni said.
Pandey looked in a hurry and cracked a quick-fire century off 147 balls with 13 boundaries and two sixes. Samarth also paced his innings superbly by belting 10 boundaries after facing 111 balls.
