Karnataka squandered a good start by their openers to hand the initiative to Gujarat as they were struggling at 226 for seven at the end of the opening day of their Group A Ranji Trophy match at Chinnaswamy stadium here today.
A solid 80-run opening stand between Mayank Agarwal (42) and Lokesh Rahul (34) had given the hosts a good platform to consolidate but Karnataka lost six wickets in the last two sessions to squander the initiative.
Kunal Kapoor played his part at number three with a crucial 57 to give some respectability to the Karnataka total.
Gujarat captain Parthiv Patel did not have any hesitation in putting Karnataka into bat, hoping to capitalise on the morning conditions. But Mayank and Rahul kept the Gujarat bowlers at bay before the former fell to Rakesh Dhruv for 42 runs in 88 balls with seven hits to the fence.
Kapoor held on firmly in company of Rahul to carry Karnataka to 93 for one at lunch.
However, Rahul fell soon after the lunch for 34, which he made in 108 balls with six hits to the fence. Thereafter, Karnataka lost wickets at regular intervals and did not have any partnership going.
Left-arm spinner Akshar Patel and pacer Mehul Patel took vital wickets of Rahul and dangerous Manish Pandey (8) while Dhruv and Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Chidambaram Gautam (8) and Stuart Binny (4) at the fag end of second session to bring Gujarat back into the game.
In the post-tea session, pacer Mehul Patel first sent Kapoor packing after he scored 57 off 149 balls with the help of seven boundaries.
Bumrah once again came into the party and removed home side captain Vinay Kumar, caught behind by Parthiv for 22 to break the 44-run stand for the seventh wicket with Ganesh Satish.
Mehul, Bumrah and Dhruv finished the day with two wickets apiece while Akshar took one wicket.
At stumps, Satish was batting on 36 and Abhimanyu Mithun on three.
