BENGALURU: All-rounder Shreyas Gopal stood tall with a career-best 161 not out as Karnataka piled more misery on Uttarakhand with massive first innings lead of 490 runs in their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal here on Thursday.
At close on day three, Uttarakhand were 106/3, still 384 runs in arrears with Dikshanshu Negi and Swapnil Singh remaining unbeaten on identical scores of 27 in an unbroken 46-run partnership.
Vidwath Kaverappa (2/22) claimed the Uttarakhand opening duo of Avneesh Sudha (4) and Jiwanjot Singh (24), while debutant M Venkatesh dismissed former Delhi batter Kunal Chandela, who had played in their 2016-17 final against Vidarbha.
Uttarakhand also have wicketkeeper-batter Aditya Tare, the Ranji Trophy-winning former Mumbai skipper in waiting but it seems a lost battle against the eight-time champions Karnataka who are eyeing their first semi-final appearance since 2020.
Resuming on 474/5, Karnataka had their strategy clear as they batted along with no declaration in sight.
Overnight centurion Gopal, who on Wednesday slammed his first Ranji Trophy century since 2017-18, continued from where he left and in the process completed 3000 runs in first-class cricket.
Gopal lost his partner BR Sharath early while Krishnappa Gowtham fell before lunch but the Karnataka all-rounder stayed on course and completed his 150. He along with Krishnappa Gowtham put together an 85-run partnership for the seventh wicket.
Swapnil Singh finally gave the breakthrough for Uttarakhand before Abhay Negi returned to clean up the tail en route to his 4/109 with wickets of Vidwath Kaverappa and Vijaykumar Vyshak.
Brief Scores: Uttarakhand 116 and 106/3; 41 overs (Dikshanshu Negi 27 batting, Swapnil Singh 27 batting; Vidwath Kaverappa 2/22).
Karnataka 606; 162.5 overs (Shreyas Gopal 161 not out, Mayank Agarwal 83, Ravikumar Samarth 82, Devdutt Padikkal 69, Nikin Jose 62; Abhay Negi 4/109, Mayank Mishra 3/117, Swapnil Singh 2/118).
Uttarakhand trail by 384 runs.