Dindigul, Dec 10 (PTI): Off-spinner K Gowtham (3 for 61) with a three-wicket haul on Tuesday helped Karnataka seize the advantage against Tamil Nadu at stumps on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Group 'B' match here with the hosts still trailing by 171 runs.

The experienced Dinesh Karthik (23 batting) holds the key for Tamil Nadu, which finished the day at 165 for 4 in response to Karnataka's first innings score of 336 all out.

Test spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (4 for 79) was on a hat-trick before being denied by No.11 V Koushik and helped the team end Karnataka's resistance.

The home team appeared to be in control as openers-Abhinav Mukund (47) and Murali Vijay (32) appeared untroubled while adding 81 runs.

Mukund was on the lookout for runs and played some superb shots while Vijay took his time to get going.

Gowtham provided the breakthrough for Karnataka by having Vijay leg before and had the left-handed Mukund caught behind by BR Sharath one run later.

Captain Vijay Shankar's promising innings was cut short when he was adjudged leg before off Gowtham on 12 when the ball appeared to have hit him a bit high.

Karthik and B Aparajith (37, 86 balls, 3 fours, 1 six) put on 45 runs for the fourth wicket before Ronit More in the middle of a good spell, got the latter to edge one to the 'keeper.

Karthik and N Jagadeesan (batting on 6) were at the crease when stumps were drawn due to bad light with a little over 15 overs to be bowled.

Earlier, the hard-working R Ashwin, who bowled 33.4 overs finished off Karnataka's lower-order by scalping three wickets including that of Gowtham, who came up with some lusty hits in his knock of 51 (39 balls, 4 fours, 4 sixes).

Resuming at 259 for 6, the visiting team's cause was helped by David Mathias (26) and Gowtham, who pushed the score past 300.

R Ashwin got the wickets of Mathias and Ronit More off successive ball but Koushik denied him a hat-trick.

Karnataka 336 all out in 110.4 overs (Devdutt Padikkal 78, Pavan Deshpande 65, K Gowtham 51; R Ashwin 4/79, M Siddharth 2/47, K Vignesh 2/55) versus Tamil Nadu 165 for 4 in 58 overs (Abhinav Mukund 47, B Aparajith 37, M Vijay 32, Dinesh Karthik 23 batting; K Gowtham 3/61).

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