After being bowled out for 204, Karnataka hit back by taking three Kerala wickets for 57 runs at close of play on the first day of their South Zone Cooch Behar Trophy (under-19) match at the KRL ground in Ambalamugal on Saturday.

The day's individual honours however went to Kerala medium pacer Santh, who took a hat-trick. Put in to bat, Karnataka were given a sound start with openers HTS Rao (32) and DV Krishna (27) adding 59 runs off 17.4 overs. Then Santh got into the wicket taking act. First he had Rao leg before. Off his next delivery he bowled Stuart Binny. And with his next ball he disturbed the stumps of DG Chougle. All this happened in the first over of Santh's second spell.

Krishna also fell at the same score in the following over. Skipper C Raghu (52) and MK Sachin (20) then initiated a recovery process by putting on 70 runs for the fifth wicket off 21.5 overs. Sooraj then rocked Karnataka by dismissing Sachin and BMV Uthappa in the space of four deliveries. Raghu himself was seventh out at 154. He faced 114 balls and hit five fours. But tailenders SS Kumar (34 not out) and KV Bhat (16) put up some resistance to take Karnataka past the 200 run mark. After the early damage by Santh, who finished with three for 47, the rest of the wickets were shared by Aneesh (4 for 50) and Sooraj (3 for 34).

Kerala, in reply, lost their wickets at regular intervals and were in a shaky position at stumps. Rain halted the match for an hour shortly after play started and play was extended for about the same time.

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