By Admin 
HUBBALLIAs if he’d been programmed to, Ravichandran Smaran continued to score runs on autopilot (110 batting, 184b, 11×4, 1×6) as Karnataka raised 298 for five after electing to bat on the opening day of its Elite Group-B fifth-round Ranji Trophy match versus Chandigarh at the KSCA Stadium here on Sunday.
Karun Nair, too, continued scoring runs (95, 164b, 12×4, 1×6) as naturally as nature itself — like dawn gathering light, like a quiet monsoon stream.
The duo added 119 runs for the fourth-wicket stand.
Smaran cover-drove with remarkable precision, like a cricket cyborg redirecting the ball to the extra-cover boundary. It was as though he played the shot from the comfort of a bunker of his own design. The stroke yielded him six fours — four off spin, and two off pace.
He straight-drove pacer Jagjit Singh Sandhu and flicked off-spinner Vishu Kashyap to square leg for a couple of fours, and then pulled Vishu again for a six over midwicket — all with no fuss or gimmick.
Cut, charge, or sweep, Karun sought boundaries regularly. Arriving at the crease to a warm reception from the small audience, he got off the mark with back-to-back fours off Jagjit — a cover drive and an on-drive, both as sublime as his current form.
He brought up his team’s fifty with a down-the-track straight six off left-arm spinner Nishunk Birla, his own fifty with a straight-drive four off left-arm spinner Taranpreet Singh, and his side’s 150 with a cover-drive four off Taranpreet again.
He swept, cut, and twice reverse-swept to collect four fours off Vishu. There was a delicately guided cut for a four off Nishunk as well.
When he was trapped leg before by a low shooter on the back foot, it felt as though Taranpreet had disrupted a phenomenon of nature.
Raj Bawa dropped Karun on 12 off Nishunk at mid-on.
The scores:
Karnataka — 1st innings: K.V. Aneesh c Nikhil b Bawa 2, Mayank Agarwal b Jagjit 9, K.L. Shrijith lbw b Nishunk 17, Karun Nair lbw b Taranpreet 95, Ravichandran Smaran (batting) 110, Abhinav Manohar lbw b Nishunk 11, Shreyas Gopal (batting) 38; Extras (nb-1, b-13, lb-2): 16; Total (for five wkts. in 90 overs): 298.
Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-13, 3-64, 4-183, 5-210.
Chandigarh bowling: Jagjit 13-3-42-1, Bawa 12-4-41-1, Vishu 28-6-68-0, Nishunk 24-1-85-2, Taranpreet 13-0-47-1.