Ishant six-for razes Vidarbha lower-order as Jadeja's Saurashtra trounce Jharkhand in Ranji Trophy
Showing his class and experience on a pitch which had a greenish tinge to it, Indian quick bowler Ishant Sharma towered over the Vidarbha batsmen at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi. His decisive spell of 6-36 helped Delhi restrict the opposition to 298. In reply, Gautam Gambhir and Nitish Rana joined together in an unbeaten century partnership to place Delhi at 132/2.
Vidarbha 298 all out (Fazal 56, Badrinath 44, Ishant 6-36); Delhi 132/2 (Gambhir 62*)
Ravindra Jadeja looks set to re-enter the Indian test team as he destroyed Jharkhand single-handedly in Rajkot. On the back of his seven-wicket haul, Saurashtra routed the visitors in less than 2 days. After 20 wickets had fallen on Day 1, the Jharkhand batsmen had no clue to combatting Jadeja’s guile and accuracy as they collapsed to 122. The Saurashtra top-order cantered to the feeble target in clinical fashion.
Jharkhand 168 and 122 (Jaggi 31, Jadeja 7-55); Saurashtra 205 and 86/2 (Jogiyani 46, Pujara 23*, Aaron 1-13)- Saurashtra won by 8 wickets
Meanwhile in Indore, the Tamil Nadu lower-order batsmen produced a flawless performance to frustrate the Madhya Pradesh bowlers. Koushik and Malolan Rangarajan combined together to produce a 196-run partnership which enabled Tamil Nadu to post a massive first innings score against a testing bowling attack which included the likes of Ishwar Pandey and Jalaj Saxena. Tamil Nadu are still going strong at 517/7 at stumps.
Tamil Nadu 517/7 (Koushik 151, Rangarajan 124*, Birla 3-46)
At the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Shreyas Iyer showcased his ever enhancing ability with a 176-ball 200 against Punjab. Aditya Tare also chipped in with an unbeaten century to help Mumbai reach a formidable 495/6 at stumps. A rampaging Iyer who scored at an astonishing rate with 5 sixes and 25 fours, was eventually dismissed by the Punjab skipper Yuvraj Singh.
Punjab 154 all out (Vohra 34, Yuvraj 13, Sandhu 4-31); Mumbai 495/6 (Iyer 200, Tare 111*, Sran 3-87)
Defending champions Karnataka started strongly in their first-innings to wrest control of the match from Bengal at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. Rallying around Karun Nair’s unbeaten 119, the other batsmen chipped in with useful contributions to ensure that Karnataka managed to reach 322/4 at stumps. A Bengal bowling unit consisting of Ashoke Dinda and Pragyan Ojha struggled to counter the confident batsmen.
Bengal 312 all out (Chatterjee 145, Saha 90, Vinay Kumar 4-80); Karnataka 322/4 (Nair 119*, Gopal 54*, Shukla 1-41)
Riding on 20-year old Deepak Hooda’s enterprising innings, Baroda have already gained a sizeable first innings lead over Railways in Vadodara. The dashing youngster handled both pace and spin with utmost ease. Former India batsman Yusuf Pathan gave him valuable company as Baroda mauled the Railways bowling on a difficult surface. Resuming at 118/1, Baroda are 448/6 at stumps.
Railways 166 all out (Karn 51, Pandya 5-61); Baroda 448/6 (Hooda 122, Yusuf 62, Devdhar 88, Anureet 4-80, Karn 0-120)
Rohan Prem’s double-hundred ensured that Kerala managed to breach the 400 mark against Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. Apart from Akash Bhandari, the rest of the Hyderabad bowlers could not penetrate the Kerala batting line-up. Hyderabad are 40/1 at stumps.
Kerala 401 all out (Prem 208, Samson 1, Bhandari 5-72); Hyderabad 40/1
In Guwahati, the watchful Assam batsmen helped place their team in a dominant position over Rajasthan XI. In reply to Rajasthan XI’s 186, Assam are sitting pretty at 212/4. KB Arun Karthick's patient half-century immensely frustrated the Rajasthan bowlers.
Rajasthan XI 186 all out( Saxena 42, Krishna Das 5-42); Assam 212/4 (KB Arun Karthick 60*, Ajay Singh 3-43)
Resuming on 231/5, Maharashtra capsized to 281 at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack. Suryakant Pradhan and Basant Mohanty removed the opposition tail-enders in a hurry. In response, the Odisha batsmen have crawled to 167/4 .
Maharashtra 281 all out (Khadiwale 74, Pradhan 4-90, Samantaray 3-31); Odisha 167/4 (Podder 78*, Mundhe 3-40)
In Vizianagaram, Srikar Bharat’s unbeaten hundred headlined Andhra Pradesh’s reply to Gujarat’s score of 308. Andhra Pradesh captain, Mohammad Kaif was still batting with Bharat as his team reached a comfortable position of 196/1. The Gujarat bowlers including the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, RP Singh and Ramesh Powar looked listless against an assured batting effort.
Gujarat 308 all out (Parthiv 122, Siva Kumar 3-44); Andhra Pradesh 196/1 (Bharat 119*, Kaif 44*, Kalaria 1-37)
Despite Parvez Rasool’s valiant century, Jammu & Kashmir could only score 293 in Dharamsala. The Himachal Pradesh batsmen capitalized on the inconsistent bowling of Jammu & Kashmir and are set to take a noteworthy first-innings lead. The centurion Nikhil Gangta and Rishi Dhawan have put on an unbeaten sixth wicket partnership.
Jammu & Kashmir 293 all out (Rasool 114*, Rishi 4-107); Himachal Pradesh 300/5 (Gangta 111*, Rishi 40*, Rasool 2-76)
Services continued to pile on the runs against Goa in Porvorim. There were several notable contributions throughout the Services batting line-up. In reply, Goa are in trouble at 63/2 after losing Amogh Desai and Sagun Kamat.
Services 403 all out (Paliwal 93, Gupta 89, Jakati 3-80); Goa 63/2 (Asnodkar 25*, Poonia 1-13)