Karnataka skipper Mayank Agarwal scored a valiant 249 towards Saurashtra, to place his facet within the driver’s seat within the second semifinal of Ranji Trophy 2022-23 on the M. Chinnaswamy stadium on Thursday.

Agarwal fought a lone battle for the house facet as he took on the potent Saurashtra assault, which had lowered Karnataka to 112-5 within the first day.

“One of the most satisfying knocks in recent times. I am very proud of it,” mentioned Mayank. “I had to be focussed ball after ball. This is not the wicket where you can get into your comfort zone and say ‘I am set and I can play these shots.’

“Yesterday [Wednesday] the need of the hour was to grind it out, keep batting and play a lot of defensive cricket which is exactly what I did. Today [Thursday] was a different challenge after we lost a couple of wickets.

“It was about putting pressure back on them, scoring at a fast rate. A lot of credit should go to the way our bowlers batted. Saurashtra didn’t know what to do after a point and they were getting frustrated.”

Along with Srinivas Sharath, the second-highest scorer within the Karnataka innings with 66, Agarwal rebuild his facet again right into a combating place.

After Sharath’s departure, the 31-year-old teamed up with lower-order batters Vidwath Kaverappa and Vasuki Koushik to push his facet past 400 and take himself to the double-century landmark.

Agarwal was the final man to be dismissed after he was run out whereas trying a dangerous double, which might have gotten him to his 250.

During his memorable knock, Agarwal additionally went previous Dhruv Shorey (859 runs) to turn into the highest scorer on this Ranji trophy season with 935 runs.