Dravids double puts Karnataka on top

Rahul Dravid scored his fifth Ranji double century to drive Karnataka to a commanding total of 575/7 declared on Day Two...

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Rahul Dravid scored his fifth Ranji double century to drive Karnataka to a commanding total of 575/7 declared on Day Two of their semi-final match against Uttar Pradesh at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Not fully recovering from Dravids 209 not out,UP were shaken further during the seven overs they had to play out before stumps once Karnataka declared,losing two wickets for 11 runs by stumps. UP tried out as many as nine bowlers in their futile search for wickets through the day while Dravid was involved in as many as four century partnerships.

Dravid looked in no hurry in the beginning,but once the slow bowlers were brought on,both he and left-hand batsman Amit Verma opened out. Dravid whipped Chawla through midwicket before striking a classical on-drive to a flighted delivery,while Vermas inside out cover drive off Praveen Gupta fgot things going.

Before lunch,the pair raised their century stand,but Verma was stumped giving the charge to Chalwa off the next delivery. New batsman CM Gautam and Dravid kept the scoreboard ticking during the second session. Again the wicket came soon after the hundred partnership and not too far from an interval – Gautam bowled by Praveen Gupta attempting an ambitious lofted on-drive.

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That brought together the most experienced players in the match,Dravid and Sunil Joshi,who hurt UP further with yet another century stand,101 runs in only 138 deliveries. The innings was soon declared,after the captain brought up his fifth Ranji double century.

UP opener Shivkant Shukla was run out by a direct hit from Amit Verma at square leg after the batsmen hesitated before going for a sharp single. Then,nightwatchman Bhuvneshwar Kumar lasted all of one ball,trapped lbw by Abhimanyu Mithun.

Dravid praised the youngsters for playing the supporting role to the hilt. All the boys played a good supporting role. But they got out when I was envisaging to play attacking strokes. It was nice to get stuck in yesterday and making it count today. Scoring wasnt easy as the ball wasnt coming on to the bat. Manish Pandey showed a lot of temperament during his 66. I just hung in there to put up a big score.

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