Vinay's six-for puts Karnataka on top despite Tripathi ton

Group A table-toppers Karnataka continued their impressive showing this season with an emphatic bowling display - led by Vinay Kumar's six-for - as they successfully countered a brisk century from Maharashtra's Rahul Tripathi.

Vinay, the Karnataka captain, backed up his decision to bowl in Pune, chipping away at opposition line-up to leave them at 28 for 5 by the 13th over. But even as he backed up match hauls worth six and eight wickets from the previous two rounds with figures of 6 for 59, Tripathi, the No. 7 batsman, launched a counter-attack, stitching together 147 runs for the sixth wicket with Naushad Shaikh.

While Shaikh was dismissed for a dogged 69, Tripathi, who had fallen short of a ton by nine runs in the previous game against Uttar Pradesh, waltzed to his fourth first-class hundred, smashing 13 fours and three sixes. On the back of his 120 off 117 balls, Maharashtra put up a comparatively decent total of 245.

In response, R Samarth (47) and Mayank Agarwal (50) got Karnataka off to a solid start with unbeaten opening stand of 117 in 31 overs.

Ambati Rayudu struck his first half-century - an unbeaten 88 - since his return to Hyderabad, and put up an unbroken stand of 139 with B Sandeep as the visitors posted 272 for 3 against Railways in Delhi.

The foundation was laid by openers Tanmay Agarwal (41) and Akshath Reddy (69) who put on 93 after Railways had put them in. They lost two quick wickets on either side of lunch, and soon slipped to 131 for 3 before Rayudu and the promoted Sandeep (64*) took them through to tea, and then batted out the entire last session together. Of Railways' four-pronged pace attack, only Manish Rao (2-49) and Karan Thakur (1-53) found any success.