The first semifinal of Ranji Trophy 2018-19 between Karnataka and Saurashtra went underway M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore and Karnataka decided to bat first after winning the toss.

However, the decision backfired, as Saurashtra skipper Jaydev Unadkat removed the top three for just 19 runs on the board. R Samarth went for a duck, out LBW, Mayank Agarwal was caught by Snell Patel for 2 and KV Siddharth scored 12, before falling LBW. Chetan Sakariya removed Karun Nair for 9 to make it 30/4 for Karnataka.

After the initial jolts, captain Manish Pandey (62 with 3 sixes and 4 fours) and Shreyas Gopal (87 with 9 fours and 1 six) added 106 runs for the fifth wicket. Then Gopal added 96 runs with S Sharath for the sixth wicket.

Unadkat came back to dismiss Pandey and Makwana dismissed Gopal and Gowtham to peg back Karnataka further. Karnataka ended day one on 264/9 with S Sharath unbeaten on 74*. K Makwana picked 3/73 to help Unadkat.

BRIEF SCORES:
KAR 264/9 (S GOPAL 87, S SHARATH 74* ; J UNADKAT 4/50)