Ranji Trophy 2016-17, Day 1 Round-Up: Gambhir fails with the bat; Uttar Pradesh on top against Tamil Nadu
Gautam Gambhir failed to perform with the bat for Delhi on the 1st day of the 3rd round of matches of the Ranji Trophy. A strong bowling performance by Karnataka led by a 4 wicket haul by Royal Challengers Bangalore star Sreenath Arvind led to Delhi being bundled out for a meagre score of 90 in 35 overs.
Arvind was well complimented by Krishnappa Gowtham who took 3 wickets and Abhimanyu Mithun who bagged two wickets.
In response to Delhi’s innings, Karnataka got off to a great start with Ravikumar Samarth and Mayank Agarwal scoring half-centuries and putting on 87 for the first wicket. After losing 3 quick wickets, Karnataka ended the day’s play at 131-3 with Karun Nair and tailender Mithun at the crease. Comeback man Ishant Sharma failed to pick up a wicket after bowling 10 overs.
Brief Scores: Delhi 90 all out against Karnataka 131-3
It was a batsman’s paradise at Dharamsala where Uttar Pradesh took on Tamil Nadu. After winning the toss, UP elected to bat first and ended the day in control as they lost only one wicket after scoring 207 runs in 90 overs.
Samarth Singh remains unbeaten on 115 at the end of the day’s play with Umang Sharma batting on 36 at the other end.Earlier that day, Samarth and Tanmay Srivastava put on a 109 run opening stand with the latter being dismissed after scoring 53. Washington Sundar was the lone wicket taker.
After playing their previous two encounters in bowling friendly pitches, Tamil Nadu will be relishing the prospect of batting on this pitch.
Brief Scores: Uttar Pradesh 207-1 against Tamil Nadu
Madhya Pradesh did not put a foot wrong in their match against defending champions Mumbai at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur as they ended the day with 239 runs on the board with the loss of only 2 wickets.
Aditya Shrivastava and Rajat Patidar were the stars with the bat as they scored 87 and 83 respectively and put on a 126 run partnership for the 3rd wicket.
Mumbai’s spearhead bowler Shardul Thakur was ineffective with the bowl as he did manage to pick up any wicket. Abhishek Nayar and Vijay Gohil were the wicket-takers for the Mumbaikars.
Brief Scores: Madhya Pradesh 239-2 against Mumbai
Led by a magnificent century by Sayan Mondal, Bengal ended the day with 332 runs on the board in 90 overs with the loss of 5 wickets.
Apart from opener Abhimanyu Easwaran who got out after scoring 8, the rest of the top order performed really well with Sudip Chatterjee and Agniv Pan chipping in with well-crafted half centuries.
Sandeep Sharma and Vinay Choudhary took 2 wickets each while Manpreet Gony chipped in with one wicket. Captain Yuvraj Singh bowled 5 overs too but was not able to pick up a wicket as he conceded 19 runs.
Brief Scores: Bengal 332-5 against Punjab
Despite bowling Gujarat out for 187, Railways were unable to capitalise as they ended they day struggling at 63 with the loss of 7 wickets.
On what has turned out to be a bowler’s paradise at Rohtak, Deepak Bansal was the star with the ball for Railways taking 6 wickets. Anureet Singh and Ranjit Mali chipped in with two wickets each.
As Railways came out to bat in the 2nd innings, none of the batsmen were allowed to settle as Mehul Patel and former India bowler RP Singh ripped through the top order. 3 out of the 7 batsmen who were dismissed did not manage a single run.
Brief Scores: Gujarat 187 all out against Railways 63-7
Other Scores:
Group B
Saurashtra 285-3 vs. Maharashtra.
Vidarbha 254-3 vs. Assam.
Jharkhand 209 vs. Rajasthan 26-0.
Group C
Tripura 305-2 vs Himachal.
Kerala 223-4 vs. Hyderabad.
Haryana 178 vs. Chhattisgarh 68-1.
Goa 333-2 vs. Services.
Jammu and Kashmir 205-6 vs. Andhra Pradesh.