ALUR (Karnataka): Shivam Mavi and Saurabh Kumar shared seven wickets between them as Uttar Pradesh reduced hosts Karnataka to 213 for seven on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy quarter-final match on Monday.
Kolkata Knight Riders pacer Mavi caused maximum damage and broke the back of Karnataka's batting, grabbing the two big wickets of Mayank Agarwal (10) and Karun Nair (29) en route to his fine spell of 11-4-40-3.
Electing to field after the start was delayed due to wet outfield, Uttar Pradesh got off to a perfect start but Mavi dismissed Agarwal cheaply to prolong the Indian Test opener's lean patch.
Agarwal, who had a lacklustre IPL campaign while captaining Punjab Kings and is out of the Indian team for the England Test next month, made a cautious start and took four balls for his 10 before being dismissed in the 13th over.
After Agarwal's departure, Ravikumar Samarth (57) tried to consolidate and along with Karun Nair showed fine intent but left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar cut short his innings not long after he completed his fifty.
Mavi then returned to haunt again as he grabbed Nair (29) before Saurabh inflicted a double blow in the form of Manish Pandey and Srinivas Sharath in successive deliveries.
Towards the fag end of the day, Saurabh dismissed Krishnappa Gowtham to derail Karnataka further.
At close, Shreyas Gopal was unbeaten on 26 from 47 balls but found company from Vijaykumar Vyashak (12 not out).
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