Karnataka set up Ranji Trophy title clash against J&K

Eight-time champions Karnataka reached their first Ranji Trophy final since the 2014-15 season by virtue of first-innings lead against Uttarakhand in the semifinal clash in Lucknow. Karnataka batters headlined the show as they amassed a match tally of 1059 runs (1st innings: 736, 2nd innings: 323) but their bowlers took charge on the final day where they chased an unlikely outright win.

After Smaran Ravichandran scored his second century of the game, KL Rahul was within touching distance of doing that too as he began Day 5 on an unbeaten 70. But Karnataka went from 299/6 to 323 all-out as left-arm spinner Mayank Mishra finished with 4-69. Rahul added 16 runs on the fifth morning before being left stranded by the tail.

Uttarakhand faced a target of 827, but the real aim was to bat time and avoid losing the game, though that wasn't enough for them to go further than this semifinal fixture. Though it seemed like Karnataka had batted too long to fetch such a result for themselves too, Vijaykumar Vyshak and Prasidh Krishna raised hopes early. Uttarakhand lost three of their top-four – Prashant Chopra, Bhupen Lalwani and Lakshya Rajesh Raichandani, cheaply and then slowly rebuilt with small stands and Avneesh Sudha's brisk half-century. But Shreyas Gopal spun a web around the middle-order to leave them down to 156/6.

The pair of Aditya Rawat and Abhay Negi then stonewalled Karnataka's attempts of wiping out the tail as they batted for 22.3 overs and added a century stand. They both got fighting fifties and the teams then shook hands to finish the game with a draw.

Brief Scores: Karnataka 736 & 323 (Smaran Ravichandran 127, KL Rahul 86*, Kruthik Krishna 52; Mayank Mishra 4-69) drew with Uttarakhand 233 & 260/6 (Abhay Negi 57*, Aditya Rawat 53*)