Ranji Trophy final: Pundir, Hassan make Karnataka bowlers toil on Day 1

After losing the toss on Tuesday morning in Hubballi, Karnataka's skipper, who was asked to field, was sure the decision was eventually in his team's favour. "I don't think it's relevant," Devdutt Padikkal had said, dismissing the result of the toss. "I've lost the toss in all the three matches, we were looking to bowl as well."

80 overs later when he refused to take the second new ball, and Jammu & Kashmir later marched on to finish the opening day of the Ranji Trophy final 284 for 2, at the back of Shubham Pundir's unbeaten century, backed up by well-crafted half-centuries from Yawer Hassan and Abdul Samad, it was obvious that Padikkal's confidence was outsmarted by Paras Dogra's assessment.

By the 47th minute of the opening day's play itself, it seemed like the early assistance that the pacers found courtesy the moisture on the surface, was a story of the past. Jammu & Kashmir may have missed the absence of the veteran Shubham Khajuria (one of the two forced changes), but the young openers Hassan and Qamran Iqbal had displayed fine application and patience even as they were regularly beaten by the movement.

It helped that Karnataka's new-ball pair didn't test the batters enough on the stump line. They kept teasing them outside the off-stump channel, and barring an appeal for caught behind which went their way - till it was reversed with a review - there weren't many celebratory moments for the cordon which included three slips and a gully fielder. With the required plan not bearing fruit, Padikkal moved to forward short leg, opening up new channels of operation for Vijaykumar Vyshak.

But none of it brought them success till a quarter past 10, when Prasidh Krishna was introduced into the attack as the first-change bowler. He got one delivery to shoot up and seam away from Iqbal, inducing an edge that was pouched safely by KL Rahul at second slip.

Prasidh brought the desired zip that was needed, bending his back and straining his shoulders on a slow surface. But chances were rare to come over the next three hours of play. As the movement died, the ploy to test the batters away from the line of stumps proved counter-productive. Pundir and Yawer Hassan were content with leaving those balls.

With the ball getting older, the partnership flourished, and the duo became extremely comfortable to attack the spin duo of Shreyas Gopal and Shikhar Shetty, and pick up some quick runs. Pundir survived a stumping chance on 53, when Kruthik Krishna took time to whip the bails off after the batter was tricked by Shetty.

The second success came mid-way through the post-Lunch session, when Prasidh got a delivery to straighten and bounce after pitching at length, squaring up Hassan and inducing an edge to second slip again. Hassan, who had endured a poor run this season, fell 12 short of a century but not before notching up his maiden first-class fifty.

In his third spell, Prasidh was especially lethal - coming on a surface that had already shown signs of tiring. Hassan was hit around his chest just a few minutes before Lunch, and Paras Dogra faced most of the brunt, unable to come to terms with the bounce - which was staying low on most deliveries, but shooting up every now and then for Prasidh and Vyshak.

One of them, by Prasidh, was especially painful, when it zipped in and hit the batter in between his shoulder and neck. While the batter fell on the ground, requiring treatment, the forward short leg fielder went up in appeal for a catch. Karnataka took a review and lost it. It was their second wasted review of the day, after once appealing for a leg before decision against Hassan even as Vyshak had come around the wicket.

Prasidh's bouncer ploy continued to trouble the batters on a surface where there wasn't much assistance for the bowlers, except for a few deliveries that were holding up a bit. Dogra survived a chance on seven when substitute fielder Aneesh put down a catch at gully. But the J&K skipper's stay in the middle wasn't to last too long. He copped a knock near his thumb by a rising delivery from Vyshak in the third session, and he retired hurt.

Karnataka continued with their short-ball ploy, but Abdul Samad wasn't ready to bog down. He took on Vidyadhar Patil with a pull, and cracked three successive boundaries to begin J&K's surge late in the day. Pundir pressed the attack on the spinners from the other end and brought up his century with a six over deep mid-wicket even when there were three fielders stationed in the deep.

The attack by the duo was well calculated, and it helped that Karnataka had moved to a defensive field-set with the old ball, negating the threats to their wicket. Even when the new ball was available, they chose not to take it, bowling out the last seven overs of the day with the spinners, even if it came at the cost of 30 runs. Pundir and Samad stretched the unbeaten stand to 105 runs, with Samad notching up his half-century in the penultimate over of the day.

Brief Scores: Jammu & Kashmir 284/2 (Shubham Pundir 117*, Yawer Hassan 88, Abdul Samad 52*, Prasidh Krishna 2-36) vs Karnataka