An aggressive century by Karnataka opener K.B. Pawan (in photo above) 121 N.O. and half centuries from Manish Pandey (58 runs ) and Amit Verma (60 N.O.) helped Karnataka to post 273 runs for 3 wicket at the end of 1^st day cricket match of the Ranji Trophy which started at the Field Club today.

Earlier this morning, Rajasthan captain Hrishikesh Kanitkar won the toss and put Karnataka on the wicket that was expected to support the pacers in early hours.

Seamer Pankaj Singh, provided the breakthrough in the very 1^st over when he removed Robin Utthapa for zero, trapping him Leg before wicket (Lbw).

Later, K.B. Pawan and Ganesh Satish steadied the innings to 45 runs without any further loss before Rajasthan’s Sumit Mathur gave another break through by removing the confident looking Ganesh.

He was caught by wicket keeper Rohit Jhalani, tottering Karnataka 45-2.

Manish Pandey, another young and promising player from Karnataka team who had also played for India in IPL, joined Pawan and started in a very aggressive form.

However, he was dropped by wicket keeper Jhalani when he was on 10 and the score was 66-2.

Manish continued to demonstrate good cricket and hosted seamer Pankaj Singh for two big sixes. He put on 88 runs for the 3^rd wicket in which he contributed 58 runs, before being dismissed by Deepak Chahar.

Pawan was then joined by left hander, Amit Verma and both continued to upset the Rajasthan attack with some sensible and attacking batsmen-ship.

Pawan on the way completed his 5^th first class century with the help of 12 fours and 1 six. Amit Verma also completed his half century and the two added unbeaten 140 runs for the 4^th wicket.

Due to bad light, the match was stopped before the scheduled time.

For Rajasthan, Seamers Pankaj Singh, Deepak Chahar and Sumit Mathur picked 1 wicket each.