Dhandapani holds Karnataka in check

Karnataka, restricted for the most part by off spinner D Dhandapani, huffed and puffed their way to 201 for eight off 86 overs at close on the first day of their three day South Zone under-25 tournament final for the Coca Cola Trophy at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Monday.

Play started only at 11.05 due to overnight rain and there was a further delay of ten minutes immediately after lunch. Play was extended till 5.30 pm and for most of the day it was a hard grind for the batsmen. Opting to bat, Karnataka lost V Prasad (6) at 11. The other opener Shyam Ponnappa (20) and AR Mahesh (43) steadied the boat by adding 41 runs for the second wicket off 19.2 overs. The recovery process was maintained with Mahesh and M Vinod (58) putting on 52 runs for the third wicket off 21.3 overs.

The rest of the day was dominated by Dhandapani. His first victim was Mahesh who batted patiently for just over 2-1/2 hours. He faced 115 balls and hit five fours. Then he had Sudhindra Shinde stumped by P Raju for 12. In the same over, he bowled Amith Kumar for a duck. Rajasekhar Shanbal (21) helped the obdurate Vinod during a valuable partnership of 38 runs for the sixth wicket off 18.3 overs before medium pacer Surendra Doss dismissed him. Then Dhandapani got into the wicket taking act again by having Nooruddin stumped by Raju for one. And finally Vinod, who had held the fort for a little over 3-1/2 hours, was out to Dhandapani. Coming in at 104 for two after 43 overs, Vinod was eighth out at 181 in the 82nd over. He faced 190 balls and hit a four and a six. Sunil Kumar (18) and NC Aiyappa (12) were at the crease when stumps were drawn. But the day's honours went to Dhandapani who had five wickets for 54 runs off 23 overs.