Karthik 151 sets up Assam's victory push

By our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI, Oct 10: Barsapara Cricket stadium is turning out to be a happy hunting ground for KB Arun Karthick. The right handed batsman today picked up his second century of the season in Ranji trophy championship at the same venue and guided Assam to post a mammoth 422 for nine (declared) in their first innings. Rajasthan, at stumps on day 3, are struggling and reduced to 47-3 in their second innings.

Resuming at overnight 212-4, in reply to Rajasthan's first innings total of 186, host's middle order, lead by Karthick, put up a splendid performance which helped Assam to take full control on the game. The hosts earned huge 236 runs first innings lead today which almost ensured atleast three points from the game

Karthik, who scored a match saving century against Kartaka few days back, once again came out with superb performance with his bat today. His 315-ball 151 runs innings included 12 hits to the fence and three over boundaries. The former Tamil du batsman, on way to play this innings, also improved his previous best score (149) in first class cricket which he scored in debut match against Kartaka.

Two middle order batsmen, Swarupam Purkayastha (47) and Kul Saikia (50 not out) also made notable contributions today. Swarupam, who came into bat when Assam lost two quick wickets in the form of Tarjinder Singh and Syed Mohammad early in the morning, hanged around the wicket for 122 minutes to score 47 runs with the help of 3 boundaries and one six. Karthick and Swarupam added 90 runs on the seventh wicket which turned out to be the best partnership in the innings.

Later, Kul displayed a solid performance with his bat. The right handed batsman took 107 balls to score unbeaten 50. His innings comprised of 5 boundaries and one huge six.

K Ajay Singh made his first class debut a memorable one picking 5 wickets for 116 runs.

Rajasthan are struggling at the end of the third day's play as the side lost three wickets on way to score 47 runs. Krish Das bagged two wickets while the Arup Das picked up the other one.

SCOREBOARD

Rajasthan 1st innings: 186

Assam 1st inning: P Das lbw b Ajay Singh R Das lbw b Singh 0 G Sharma c Yagnik b Ajay Singh 46 Amit Verma b Ajay Singh 19 KB Arun Karthik lbw b Puneet Yadav 151 Tarjinder Singh lbw b Singh 25 J Syed Mohammad c Yagnik b Ajay Singh 13 S Purkayastha c Singh b Ajay Singh 47 KN Saikia not out 50 AK Das lbw b Chahar 1 K Das not out 2 Extras (b 16, lb 9, nb 10) 35 Total (9 wickets dec; 151 overs; 638 mins) 422

Fall of wickets:  1-2, 2-83, 3-88, 4-138, 5-218, 6-242, 7-332, 8-399, 9-400,

Bowling: DL Chahar 27.5-11-49-1, NB Singh 25.2-2-77-2, A Choudhary 23.4-3-53-0,M Khatri 19-3-61-0, K Ajay Singh 39.5-5-116-5, Puneet Yadav 1.2-0-3-1, AL Meria 14-2-38-0

Rajasthan 2nd innings: P Sharma lbw b K Das 15, VA Saxe c Saikia b AK Das 1 A Meria not out 20 R Bishnoi c Saikia b K Das 0 Puneet Yadav not out 1 Extras (b 4, lb 5, nb 1) 10 Total (3 wickets; 15 overs) 47.

Fall of wickets:  1-17, 2-28,3-28

Bowling: AK Das 7-2-12-1,K Das 5-2-13-2, S Purkayastha 2-0-13-0 Amit Verma1-1-0-0