Barrington enables Karnataka take lead

Karnataka opener Rowland Barrington stood firm with an unbeaten 122 after Gujarat's pace sensation Siddharth Trivedi ruffled the visitors' top order on the second day of the 'Elite' Group 'B' Ranji Trophy match in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

At stumps, Karnataka, who bowled out Gujarat for 210 yesterday, were 280 for six.

Overnight 61 without loss, Karnataka were dealt three blows in a single over by Trivedi before Barrington's painstaking ton helped them take a crucial 70-run lead.

Trivedi's first prey was captain J Arun Kumar, who was unbeaten on a fiery 40 off 43 balls yesterday. The batsman gave an outside edge to 'keeper Nilesh Modi.

The lanky paceman again struck in the same over, removing young Robin Uthappa, caught by Gujarat skipper Mukund Parmar at first slip.

Wicketkeeper V Tilak Naidu also followed, and very soon, there were four Karnataka batsmen cooling their heels in the pavilion after Shyamal Bhatt trapped an aggressive Vijay Bharadwaj in front of stumps with the total on 84.

But Rowland, who smashed his seventh Ranji century and second of the season, played cautiously and put on 83 runs for fifth wicket with Deepak Chougule (37) to reconstruct the innings.

His 122 came off 320 balls with seven boundaries after 426 minutes at the crease.

Stuart Binny also chipped in with a useful 41 before being run-out by 'keeper Modi.

Scoreboard

Gujarat (Ist innings): 210.

Karnataka (Ist innings): (Overnight 61 for no loss)
J Arun Kumar c Modi b Trivedi 43
R Barrington batting 122
Robin Uthappa c Parmar b Trivedi 0
V Naidu c Modi b Trivedi 0
V Bhardwaj lbw b Bhatt 13
D Chougule lbw b Trivedi 37
S Binny run out 41
S Joshi batting 18

Extras: (lb 4, w 2) 6

Total: (For 6 wickets, 104 overs) 280

Fall of wickets: 1-68, 2-68, 3-68, 4-84, 5-167, 6-251

Bowling: L Patel 25-4-63-0, S Trivedi 24-2-71-4, S Bhatt 16-6-44-1, S Yadav 27-9-57-0, T Patel 10-0-32-0, N Patel

2-0-9-0.