2017-18 Ranji Trophy round-up, round 7, Day 1: Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey smash centuries to put Karnataka in control
Twin centuries propel Punjab to massive total
Punjab got off to a flying start on day 1 with a century opening stand. Jiwanjot Singh and Shubman Gill started positively, not giving the Services bowlers a sniff. However, Jiwanjot was forced to retire hurt soon after reaching his half-century. That seemed to breathe some life into the visitors as they got rid of the dangerous Manan Vohra almost immediately for just 3. That was as good as it got for them though. Gill combined with Anmolpreet Singh to dash Services hopes. Both notched up their respective centuries and following Gill's dismissal, Gurekeerat Mann joined in on the fun to compile a fifty of his own. Mann and Anmolpreet remained unbeaten at Stumps, with Punjab at 395/2.
Brief Score: Punjab 395/2 (Gill 129, Anmolpreet 129*, Mann 68*, Yadav 1/54, Tanwar 1/85)
Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey put Railways to the sword
Mayang Agarwal and Manish Pandey looked to be batting on a different planet as the others, cruising along to their respective centuries. While Pandey was dismissed by Vidyadhar Kamath soon after reaching his milestone, Agarwal continued to dominate the bowlers, notching up a quickfire 173 off 241 before falling to Vinit Dhulap. Agarwal's fourth 100+ knock in as many matches took him to the top of the run scorer's charts for the season.
However, there were failures for Karun Nair and Stuart Binny. For Railways, the wickets were evenly distributed with Thakur, Dhulap, Mishra and Kamath picking on each and Rao ending with two. Karnataka sit pretty on 355/6 and look all set to notch up yet another victory.
Brief score: Karnataka 355/6 (Agarwal 173, Pandey 108, Rao 2/65)
Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer fail, but Mumbai in control
Mumbai took charge of their encounter against Tripura thanks to a devastating spell from 23-year-old Akash Parkar. Parkar and Dhawal Kulkarni accounted for the Tripura top order with the former ending with a fifer. Tripura managed to limp along to 195 with none of their batters registering a half-century.
In reply, Mumbai got off to a poor start, with their two best batsmen Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer back in the hut within the seventh over. Shaw has been in spectacular form in this Ranji season, having amassed three centuries and a half-century already. However, a Rana Dutta special sent his off peg flying. Following Iyer's dismissal, Bishta and Suryakumar Yadav helped steady the ship with the hosts ending the day at 77/3.
Brief score: Mumbai 77/3 trail Tripura 195 (Mura Singh 43, Yashpal Singh 33, Parkar 5/32, Kulkarni 3/67) by 118 runs
Gautam Gambhir sizzles early, Himmat Singh suffers heartbreak
Delhi won the toss and got off to a flier, thanks to Gautam Gambhir and Kunal Chandela. Gambhir looked to be in a punishing mood, hitting seven fours before falling to Mehdi Hasan for 33 off 32 balls. India hopeful Rishabh Pant too failed, managing just 16. However, the biggest highlight of the day was the innings of Himmat Singh, playing just his second first-class game. The 21-year-old looked in fine touch, but fell agonisingly short of his maiden century when he was run-out by B Sandeep on 99.
Brief score: Delhi 336/5 (Singh 99, Chandela 64, Mehdi 2/88)
Other scores:
Madhya Pradesh 96/1 trail Odisha 147 by 51 runs
Bengal 305/5 vs Goa
Gujarat 262/4 vs Jharkhand
Baroda 254/8 vs Tamil Nadu
Himachal 287/6 vs Vidarbha
Saurashtra 286/3 vs Rajasthan
Haryana 206/8 vs Kerala
Maharashtra 64/3 trail Assam 279 by 215 runs