SHILLONG, Nov 27: Karnataka put up a commanding performance against Meghalaya on the second day of their U-19 Cooch Behar Trophy match at the MCA Ground on Sunday, leaving the hosts in trouble with two days remaining.
Resuming play on 130/1 in response to Meghalaya’s first innings total of 157 all out, Karnataka settled in from the start for a long innings and finally declared on 551/3, with Vijayaraj shining with an unbeaten 250.
After making exactly 100 runs today, the second wicket partnership was broken by left-arm spinner Sachin Kumar, who trapped Swaroop S Hipparagi lbw for 99. Kumar, who scored 60 with the bat yesterday, then had Prakar Chaturvedi caught by Bosrang R Marak at mid-on for 47.
The biggest partnership was between Vijayaraj and Dhruv Prabhakar (72 not out), who put on 215 in an unbroken fourth wicket stand. Vijayaraj was the standout performer, though, with his superb innings of 250 laced with 39 fours and three sixes from just 255 deliveries.
Karnataka declared with a first innings lead of 394 and Meghalaya faced nine overs before stumps, scoring 12/1.
Mrityunjay Bharali, who was bowled off the first ball of the match yesterday, held on for 30 deliveries today to finish not out on 8. Avinash Rai was out for 4. Jeremiah Lyngdoh Kynshi joined Bharali at the crease.
Meghalaya are 382 runs away from making Karnataka bat again, with the visitors hoping to wrap things up by Monday.
