Karnataka wore Uttarakhand down further and earned a massive 503-run first-innings lead.
Uttarakhand, from an overnight 149 for five, was bundled out for 233 on the penultimate morning. With no requirement to force an outright result, Karnataka batted again and got to 299 for six by stumps, with the overall lead now a gigantic 802.
The only scare for the eight-time champion was the injury to skipper Devdutt Padikkal, who hurt his right hand while grassing Abhay Negi at gully off Prasidh Krishna.
The 25-year-old, who had his fingers taped for the rest of the day, neither marshalled his team thereafter nor came out to bat.
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But Karnataka didn’t miss him one bit and would have been thankful for the additional rest and recovery time ahead of the final, starting on February 24.
Armed with the space to experiment, Karnataka rejigged its batting order in the second essay, asking wicket-keeper Kruthik Krishna to open with Mayank Agarwal and promoting Shreyas Gopal to No. 3.
Kruthik capitalised by scoring his second half-century of the contest (52, 97b, 9×4), but Shreyas could not as he was out for his third duck in four innings.
R. Smaran, though, displayed his immense hunger for runs by conjuring his second century of the match, fourth of the campaign and sixth in First Class cricket (127, 149b, 12×4, 3×6).
The 22-year-old has now totalled 950 runs in the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy season, a splendid achievement for someone playing only his second season.
K.L. Rahul, coming in at No. 6, made an entertaining, unbeaten 70 (67b, 3×4, 5×6) and the 168-run partnership with Smaran all but reduced Uttarakhand to a heap of dust.
Published on Feb 18, 2026
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