Ranji Roundup, Day 1: Yuvraj Singh back with a bang, Tamil Nadu falter again
Yuvraj Singh had the perfect answer to his critics as he went on to score a stupendous knock of 164 not out at the end of the first day of play against Madhya Pradesh during the 2nd round of matches of the Ranji Trophy.
He was well complimented by Gurkeerat Mann who scored a quickfire century off 101 balls. The duo amassed an unbeaten partnership of 152 runs as Punjab seem to be in complete control against their opponents.
Earlier in the day, Punjab lost two early wickets as Manan Vohra and Uday Kaul failed to get the scoreboard ticking, but were soon revived by Jiwanjot Singh, Yuvraj, and Gurkeerat.
Brief Scores: Punjab 347/3 in 89 overs against Madhya Pradesh
Tamil Nadu batsmen failed to perform for the third consecutive time as they were bowled out for a meagre score of 121 against Railways. The highest score of 22 came off the bat of Abhinav Mukund.
Dinesh Karthik and Baba Aparajith tried to lead the revival but failed to do so as both of them were dismissed just before they reached 20.
Deepak Bansal and M R Chaudhary starred with the ball as they picked up a combined total of 7 wickets.
Railways ended the day at 87 with the loss of 3 wickets with Mrunal Devdhar scoring 47.
Brief Scores: Railways 87/3 against Tamil Nadu 121 all out
Irfan Pathan led Baroda did not have too much to boast about as the side ended the day at 286 with the loss of 9 wickets.
The Mumbai bowlers led by Shardul Thakur were on song and did not allow the Baroda batsmen to settle down by taking wickets at regular intervals.
Wicket-keeper Prinal Shah top scored with a calm and composed knock of 66. Deepak Hooda and Yusuf Pathan provided worthy contributions of 46 and 41 respectively but were not able to convert those into big scores.
Thakur took 2 wickets while Vijay Gohil bagged 3.
Brief Scores: Baroda 286/9 against Mumbai
Led by a magnificent century by Ravikumar Samarth, Karnataka ended the day strongly against Jharkhand.
Karun Nair performed well too, as he scored a well-crafted knock of 74. Along with Samarth, the duo put up a partnership of 155 runs for the 3rd wicket.
Ashish Kumar was the pick of the bowlers for Jharkhand as he picked up all the 3 wickets in his 20 overs. Karnataka ended the day with 248 runs on the board.
Brief Scores: Karnataka 248/3 against Jharkhand
Led by strong performances at the top of the order, Bengal seem to be in control at the end of the day’s play against Uttar Pradesh.
Abhimanyu Chatterjee top scored with a magnificent knock of 123 not out, and he was complimented by Sudip Chatterjee and Agniv Pan who scored 73 and 51 respectively.
Ankit Rajpoot was the only bowler who performed well for Uttar Pradesh as he picked up the 3 wickets in 19 overs. Bengal will look to increase their lead on day 2 with Manoj Tiwary out at the crease along with Abhimanyu.
Brief Scores: Bengal 288/3 against Uttar Pradesh
Other Scores:
Group B:
Maharashtra 290/2 against Delhi
Assam 195 all out against Rajasthan
Odisha 228 all out against Saurashtra 4/0
Group C:
Tripura 228/7 against Services
Chhattisgarh 261/4 against Andhra Pradesh
J&K 227 all out against Goa 43/5
Kerala 163/4 against Himachal Pradesh
Hyderabad 191 all out against Haryana