Ankit Bawne’s maiden Ranji Trophy century helped hosts Maharashtra offer some resistance in a match dominated by Karnataka in the Elite Division of the Ranji Trophy at the Poona Club cricket ground on Friday.

Karnataka added 80 runs to their overnight total of 473 runs to declare at 553/4 with Amit Verma finishing unbeaten on 148. Karnataka paceman, Abhimanyu Mithun, then dominated the next session of play nearly picking up his second hat-trick of his maiden tournament.

He picked up consecutive wickets of Rohan Bhonsale and and Ameya Srikhande and nearly dismissed Kedar Jadhav on the very next delivery, but the ball which took the inside edge missed the stump by inches.

“I was visualising my previous hat trick that I got against UP and decided to bowl a Yorker like id did the last time. But the batsman was fortunate to get away with it", he said. Khadiwale soon departed after experienced paceman Vinay Kumar got him clean bowled and Maharashtra at this stage were staring at the prospect of a humiliating innings defeat at 13-3.

A fearless Ankit Bawne then stepped in and decided to play his natural game. “I wanted to play more positively this time around. I decided to play more on the front foot and was more positive with my stroke play,” he said.

This ploy of attack worked as the 16-year-old smashed 19 fours and one six on his way to a potential match saving innings of 117. Rohit Motwani offered excellent support to Bawne scoring 78 important runs before falling to former Indian spinner Sunil Joshi. Ganesh Gaikwad then played second fiddle to Bawne and remained unbeaten on 17 to end the day’s play. Maharashtra ended the day at 254/5.

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