When stumps were drawn 25 minutes beyond schedule, Karnataka, after making a reasonable 326 in the first essay, flexed their muscles to have the strong Rest team precariously perched at 100 for three. Rest, in fact, were pottering around unconvincingly before Rohan Gavaskar came in and threw his bat around to make a quick-fire 21 with three boundaries and a six to momentarily ease off the pressure.

Overnight 233 for four, the home side did well through a string of small partnerships to reach a respectable 326 about 30 minutes after lunch.

The frontline bowlers, Prasad, Ganesh and Joshi did not let down the side on the day. Joshi was the pick of the bowlers and gave enough evidence that he would be the man to chart the course of the match.

Earlier, pacemen Venkatesh Prasad and Doddanarasiah Ganesh bowled toovertly attacking fields in a bid to prise out openers VVS Laxman and south paw Jyoti Yadav.

Laxman eased off the pressure every now and then with smashing drives. The tall right-hander played two superb on-the-rise off-drives off Prasad and Ganesh respectively before the latter had him brilliantly caught at short square leg by Girish Rao.

At 77 for three, Rest were certainly in trouble. The saving grace was Tamil Nadu left hander S Sharath who batted with assurance, middled nearly every delivery and towards the close watched Gavaskar, another left hander, pick runs off Karnataka's weakest link, Ananth. Both lived to fight another day.

Scoreboard

Karnataka (1st innings) (overnight 233 for 4):

Sujit Somasundar c&b Chopra 143, Arun Kumar c Mhambrey b Robin Jr 12, Vijay Bharadwaj lbw Robin Jr 10, Girish Rao c Muzumdar b Chopra 23, A Vijay c Muzumdar b Chopra 39, Sunil Joshi c Muzumdar b Chopra 4, DS Ananth b Sivaramakrishnan 19, Shiruguppi not out 23, Dodda Ganesh b Pawar 20, Venkatesh Prasad cMSK Prasad b Pawar 7, Anand Katti c&b Robin Jr 0; Extras: (nb23, lb3) 26. Total (all out in 540 mins, 145.5 overs) 326

Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-72, 3-145, 4-233, 5-241, 6-270, 7-274, 8-308, 9-325

Bowling:Mhambrey 12-0-46-0; Robin Jr 24.5-12-43-3; Sivaramakrishnan 22-4-71-1, Pawar 28-6-57-2; Chopra 48-18-87-4; Gavaskar 5-0-14-0, Laxman 2-0-5-0

Rest of India (1st innings):VVS Laxman c Rao b Ganesh 19, Jyoti Yadav c Ganesh b Joshi 11, Muzumdar c Prasad b Joshi 17, S Sharath batting 16; Rohan Gavaskar batting 21; Extras (5b, nb10, w1) 16; Total (for 3 in 42 overs in 179 mins) 100

Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-50, 3-77

Bowling:Prasad 13-6-17-0, Ganesh 11-1-35-1, Joshi 14-6-26-2, DS Ananth 3-0-17-0, Katti 1-1-0-0