A century by opener Sachin Dholpure helped Madhya Pradesh post 296 for four in the first innings against Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group `A' encounter on the third day in Bangalore on Saturday.

Madhya Pradesh, resuming at 120 for one, were aided by poor fielding and dropped catches by the hosts.

Dholpure was dropped twice, first by Robin Uthappa at second slip and then by Sunil Joshi at gully, before he reached his ton.

He was dismissed for 107 (18x4) fours, caught behind by V S Tilak Naidu off Stuart Binny.

Visiting captain Amay Khurasia was out for 45, caught in the covers by his Karnataka counterpart Sujith Somasundar off C Raghu.

Left hander Abbas Ali (51) and Nikhil Patwardhan (37) were at the crease when play was called off due to bad light.

Ali also was dropped twice in the slips before he reached his half century, once by Robin Uthappa and by Vijay Bharadwaj off the bowling of Vinay Kumar.

The start of the match was delayed by 15 minutes as the outfield was damp due to the rains last evening.

Scorecard

Karnataka (1st innings): 619 for 5 decl.

Madhya Pradesh (1st innings): (overnight 120 for 1)
Sachin Dholpure c Naidu b Binny 107
N Ojha c Naidu b V Kumar 0
A Khurasiya c Somasunder b Raghu 45
D Bundela c Uthappa b Aiyappa 31
S Abbas Ali not out 51
N Patwardhan not out 37

Extras: (b 10, lb 1, nb 14) 25

Total: (4 wickets, 106 overs) 296

To Bat: B Tomar, N Hirwani, Y Golwalkar, S Pandey, S Pitre.

Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-120, 3-182, 4-220.

Bowling: Ganesh 22-4-71-0, V Kumar 15-1-67-1, Aiyappa 19-5-51-1, Joshi 27-12-48-0, Raghu 19-6-45-1, Binny 4-3-3-1.