Ranji Trophy 2017 Round-up, Round 3 Day 1: Prithvi Shaw's third century in four FC matches steals the show; KL Rahul fails to shine
Prithvi Shaw's knock sees Mumbai pile up 300+ runs in a day
After losing Akhil Herwadkar as early as in the second over, Shaw joined hands with Shreyas Iyer and built a 98-run partnership at an alarmingly quick rate. Iyer, who was selected for the T20I series against New Zealand yesterday, imposed himself on the TN bowlers from the very first ball and in a whirlwind innings of 62-ball-57, smashed seven fours and two sixes.
Shaw, himself, was scoring at a strike-rate of around 80, which kept the TN bowlers on the backfoot. After Iyer's departure, Surya Kumar Yadav arrived and scored a run-a-ball 39, which allowed the 17-year-old Shaw to keep hold of his wicket and complete his century, his third in four First-Class matches.
The young prodigy was Mumbai's fifth wicket to fall, after which captain Aditya Tare and Abishekh Nayar held on and helped Mumbai reach a score of 314/7 by the end of the day. On the other hand, Ravichandran Ashwin, who was taken to the cleaners by the pair of Shaw and Iyer early on, returned for his second spell to pick up two wickets, including that of the young centurion.
Vijay Shankar's twin strikes towards the end of the day pulled TN back in the back.
Brief Scores: Mumbai 314/7 (Shaw 123, Iyer 57, Vijay Shankar 3/37) vs Tamil Nadu.
Skipper Bawane leads the charge for Maharashtra against UP
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, captain Ankit Bawane wouldn't have thought his team would be in such a good position despite losing one of his most important players in Rahul Tripathi early on in the day. Opener Swapnil Gugale was out stumped when he tried to step forward on a Saurabh Kumar delivery.
Much was expected from IPL 2017 sensation Rahul Tripathi when he walked out to bat at number three. However, after adding nine runs to the scoreboard, he became the second victim of Saurabh Kumar. Skipper Bawane then joined hands with Ruturaj Gaikwad, who departed 13 runs after scoring his half-century.
The skipper eventually went on to complete his century with a maximum and was not out with 107 on the other side. Maharshatra managed 274 runs for the loss of 4 wickets.
Brief Scores: Maharashtra 274/4 (Bawane 107, Saurabh Kumar 3/91) vs Uttar Pradesh
Rahul and Karnataka fail to impress
In what was a horrid outing for Karnataka, they were bowled out for 183 despite having the likes of KL Rahul and Karun Nair in the ranks. While Rahul could manage only four runs, Mayank Agarwal went for a duck, and Nair managed 23. Their highest scorer was experienced-campaigner Stuart Binny with a knock of 61 runs which helped his team add up 183 runs somehow. Mohammed Siraj was the pick of bowlers, bagging four wickets in 15 overs.
In return, Krishnappa Gowtham's late strikes reduced Hyderabad to 51/3 at the end of day's play with skipper Ambati Rayudi back in the pavilion for zero.
Brief Score: Hyderabad 51/3 (Kolla Sumanth 34*, K Gowtham 2/22) trail Karnataka 183 (Stuart Binny 61, Md Siraj 4/42) by 132 runs.
Five centuries and a double century in three matches
While Ashutosh Singh and Amandeep Khare scored a century each for Chhattisgarh against Vidarbha in Nagpur, Prashanth Kumar and Hanuma Vihari repeated that for Andhra versus Odisha at the Dr P.V.G. Raju ACA Sports Complex, Vizianagaram.
The only double century of the day came from Jiwanjot Singh for Punjab against Goa at the Goa Cricket Association Academy, Porvorim. Jiwanjot's teammate Anmolpreet Singh scored a hundred himself as their side amassed almost 400 runs on the day.
Brief Scores:
Chhattisgarh 246/3 (Singh 113, Khare 116*, Umesh Yadav 3/44) vs Vidarbha.
Andhra 278/2 (Kumar 127, Vihari 143*) vs Odisha.
Punjab 396/2 (J Singh 215*, A Singh 103*, RR Singh 2/31) vs Goa.
Other Scores
Tripura 88/6 (BB Ghosh 42*) vs Madhya Pradesh.
Assam 216/8 (Tarjinder Singh 43, Deepak Bansal 3/50, Amit Mishra 3/56) vs Railways.
Jharkhand 14/0 (Nazim Siddiqui 11*) trail Haryana 208 (CK Bishnoi 61*, Sunny Gupta 4/67) by 194 runs.
Himachal 273/5 (NR Gangta 89*, Prashant Chopra 55) vs Services.
Gujarat 15/0 trail Jammu & Kashmir 261(Shubham Khajuria 54, Ahhmad Omar Banday 54, Piyush Chawla 5/92) by 246 runs.
Kerala 232/3 (Roham Prem 86, Jalaj Saxena 79) vs Rajasthan.