Hubli: Riding on brilliant half-centuries by opener Yawer Hassan and Shubham Pundir, Jammu and Kashmir reached 178/2 at tea on Day 1 of the Ranji Trophy final against the eight-time champions Karnataka here at the Hubli Cricket Ground on Tuesday.
Yawer and Pundir started the post-lunch session from where they left off , by continuously rotating the strike to put pressure on the opposition. The duo completed the hundred-run partnership in the 39th over. With Yawer contributing more by scoring 60 runs and Pundir adding 40 runs to the pair’s total.
Pundir completed his fifty with a four in the 45th over against Vidyadhar Patil. Karnataka finally got the breakthrough in the 51st over when Prasidh Krishna trapped Yawer on a good length ball. KL Rahul took a brilliant catch in the slips to break the pair.
Yawer missed a well-deserved hundred by just 12 runs. He hammered 13 fours during his 88-run innings.
After losing his partner, Pundir continued his attack and remained unbeaten at 64 with skipper Paras Dogra (9 not out) at the end of the second session. Jammu and Kashmir scored 74 runs in the post-lunch session by losing just one wicket.
Earlier, Jammu and Kashmir had an excellent start after opting to bat first. Openers Qamran Iqbal and Yawer Hassan had a testing time against the new ball, but they managed to survive the first 10 overs before Iqbal was sent packing by Prasidh Krishna for six runs.
The first strike for Karnataka came after 45 minutes of play when Prasidh Krishna got rid of Qamran. The opener was wobbly, with his feet prodding and charging forward often to Vidhyadhar Patil in the first spell from this end. Just as he began to look settled in, he failed to account for the extra bounce from Prasidh, handing a simple catch to KL Rahul at second slip.
After the wicket, Pundir and Yawer were unbeaten in the first session as Jammu and Kashmir were comfortably placed at 104/1 at lunch.
Brief Scores: Jammu & Kashmir 178/2 (Yawer Hassan 88 and Shubham Pundir 64*; Prasidh Krishna 2-24) against Karnataka at Tea.
