Propelled by an unbeaten century by opener Robin Uthappa, Karnataka recovered from early setbacks to end the opening day on a strong 299 for three against Delhi in the Ranji Trophy Super League Group A tie at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Sunday.
Uthappa looked assured in his fluent knock of 161 to help Karnataka move into a strong position.
When play ended early due to bad light, skipper Yere Goud (26) was at the crease along with the centurion.
Playing an equally effective role in setting up things for Karnataka was middle-order batsman Chandrashekar Raghu who made a brisk 87 with 15 boundaries.
The visitors were deep in trouble after losing two wickets by the third over before the Uthappa-Raghu combination shifted the momentum away from Delhi.
Karnataka started on a wrong note, losing Rowland Barrington and Bharat Chipli to Ashish Nehra in the same over with only nine runs on the board.
But Delhi clearly missed a quality spinner and once the pitch dried out, failed to make any impression on Uthappa, who has struck so far 23 boundaries in his 219-ball knock.
Showing no signs of being affected by the early reversals, the duo put on 200 runs at healthy run-rate for the third wicket to completely wrest the initiative from the home side.
The series of dropped catches continued to haunt Delhi as Shikhar Dhawan, positioned at first slip, made a hash of regulation catch offered by Raghu off Ishant Sharma's bowling when he was on 47.
Scorecard
Karnataka, 1st Innings:
R Barrington b Ashish Nehra 4
R Uthappa batting 161
B Chipli c Kohli b Nehra 0
C Raghu c Chopra b Bhatia 87
Yere Goud batting 26
Extras (9b, 12nb) 21
Total (for three wickets in 80.1 overs) 299
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-9, 3-209.
Bowling: Ashish Nehra 23.1-2-113-2, Ishant Sharma 19-3-62-0, Kunal Lal 6-0-34-0, Chetnya Nanda 16-4-46-0, Rajat Bhatia 12-6-18-1, Mithun Manhas 4-1-17-0.
