The loss of two quick wickets put Karnataka on the backfoot at the end of the second day in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'A' match against Railways in Delhi on Thursday. At stumps, they were 134 for three.
Earlier, Railways had bowled out the defending champions for 323.
Railway batsman Shreyas Khanolkar and Karnataka pacer R Vinay Kumar hogged the spotlight, emerging top scorer and highest wicket taker of the day respectively.
Khanolkar, overnight seven, scored 81, hitting 11 boundaries during his 205 minutes stay at the crease. He was also involved in a 106-run seventh-wicket partnership with Shankar Rao and instrumental in Railways posting a sizeable total.
Vinay Kumar bagged five wickets, conceding 65 runs of 27 overs.
The priority for Karnataka on day 3 is gaining the crucial first innings lead, for which they need 190 runs with seven wickets in hand.
Resuming at their overnight score of 185 for six, Railways added 137 runs to their kitty before being all out 27 minutes after lunch.
Rookie Karnataka medium pacer B Vinay Kumar claimed two of the five wickets that fell this morning to end up with figures of 5 for 65, while Kumble had three for 86.
Railways started the day poorly as they lost their sixth wicket when Yere Goud was trapped leg before by Doda Ganesh. The batsman added four runs to his overnight score of 16.
However, the 106-run seventh wicket partnership between Khanolkar and Rao enabled Railways to cross the 300-mark.
It was left to Vinay to break the stand and bring the visitors back in the game. He got rid of Rao, who was caught at long on by Ganesh. Rao made 40 (1x6, 4x4, 123 mts) and after that Railways lost the next three wickets in a space of 27 runs and 6.2 overs.
Karnataka's reply began on a disastrous note as they lost both their openers in the space of 29 runs and 9.5 overs.
Santosh Saxena got rid of the openers Bharat Chipli and Barrington Rowland, both of them caught behind by Sudhir Wankhade.
Chipli was back in the pavilion when total score was six and his own contribution being two. Rowland scored six, though he stayed at the crase for 54 minutes.
Skipper Sujith Somasunder and S Shinde prevented Railways from gaining another quick breakthrough as they put up 70 runs for the third wicket.
The way the two batted it looked as they would see through the day, but Railways skipper Sunjay Bangar made a shrewd bowling change and brought T P Singh into attack and he did the trick by clean bowling Somasunder. The Karnataka skipper made 46 (7x4, 156m).
At stumps, S Shinde was batting on 49 (6x4, 149 minutes) and Stuart Binny was on 19 (4x4, 28 minutes).
Scorecard
Railways (1st innings):
Sanjay Bangar c S.Shinde b R Vinay Kumar 0
Amit Pagnis lbw R Vinay Kumar 39
Tejinder Pal Singh c Somasunder b R Vinay Kumar 16
Vineet Saxena c and b Sunil Joshi 29
Raja Ali c S Shinde b Anil Kumble 59
Yere Goud lbw Doda Ganesh 20
Shreyas Khanolkar c Kumble b R Vinay Kumar 81
G Shankar Rao c D Ganesh b R Vinay Kumar 40
Sudhir Wankhade lbw Anil Kumble 4
Harvinder Singh not out 2
Santosh Saxena c B Chipli b Anil Kumar 1.
Extras: (b 8, lb 4, nb 19, w 1) 32.
Total: (131.2 overs) 323.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-28, 3--78, 4-122, 5-176, 6-200, 7-306, 8-319, 9-320.
Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 27-5-65, Doda Ganesh 21-2-48-1, B Akhil: 17-5-46-0, Anil Kumble 40.2-11-86-3, Sunil Joshi 24-11-57-1, Stuart Binny 2-0-09-0.
Karnataka (1st innings):
Bharat Chipli c S Wankhade b Santosh Saxena 2
B Rowland c S Wankhade b Santosh Saxena 6
S Somasunder b T P Singh 46
S Shinde batting 49
Stuart Binny batting 19.
Extras: (b 4, lb 7, nb 1) 12.
Total: (for three wickets, 46 overs) 134.
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-29, 3-99.
Bowling: Harvinder Singh 14-7-21-0, Santosh Saxena 10-2-33-2, Sanjay Bangar 10-2-22-0, G Shankar Rao 08-1-22-0, T P Singh 01-0-8-1, S Khanolkar 3-0-17-0.