Devdutt Padikkal's Maiden Double, Ravichandran Smaran Ton Propel Karnataka To 689/6

Skipper Devdutt Padikkal led from the front with a maiden double hundred in first-class cricket as a dominant Karnataka posted an imposing 689 for six, compounding Uttarakhand's misery in their Ranji Trophy semifinal on Monday. On another fruitful day for the Karnataka batters, Ravichandran Smaran too helped himself to a fluent century, scoring an unbeaten 121 off 191 balls with the help of 11 boundaries. Padikkal made a monumental 232 off 330 balls, striking 29 fours and three sixes during his long vigil at the crease. Resuming at their overnight total of 355 for two, Karnataka started the second's play from where it had left on 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 domination.

Uttarakhand tasted the day's first success when medium pacer Abhay Negi dismissed Karun with a back of a length delivery that angled away, and the nick was taken by wicketkeeper Saurabh Rawat.

Padikkal, who began the day at 148 not out, continued to play confidently and reached his first-ever double century in 288 balls, with Smaran too looking good at the other end.

However, having added 59 runs with Smaran, Padikkal tried to work a turning Lakshya Raichandani delivery towards fine-leg but only ended up edging it to Rawat behind the stumps, bringing to an end his long stay in the middle amid a round of applause and acknowledgement.

Shreyas Gopal was on his way back for a duck after facing just six, 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, Smaran found an able ally in wicketkeeper Kruthik Krishna, with whom the 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 tries to defend it.

Uttarakhand's agony did not end there though, as seamer Vidyadhar Patil (35 batting off 103 balls) too chipped in with the bat, while adding 81 runs in an unbroken seventh-wicket partnership with Smaran.

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.