Ranji Trophy 2018-19: Top 5 performances from Round 1
The first round of India's 85th domestic first-class cricket championship - Ranji Trophy - ended a few hours ago. A total of 17 matches were played in Round 1 of Ranji Trophy, 13 of which were played in the Elite groups and the rest 4 matches in the plate group.
The defending champions Vidarbha put up a disappointing show in the first innings of Round 1 match against Maharashtra. After being asked to follow-on, Captain Faiz Fazal lead from the front with a gritty century to bail his team out of an innings defeat. Team Nagaland from plate group came out good against Mizoram to register an emphatic victory within 3 days. Uttar Pradesh put up a clinical performance against Goa to win by an innings and 247 runs. Led by the fine centuries from Mohammad Saif (125), Priyam Garg (117), and captain Akshdeep Nath (196), Uttar Pradesh posted a mammoth total of 564 on the board.
There were a lot of good performances over the last 4 days. Let us take a look at the best 5 from Round 1.
#5 Ricky Bhui (Andhra)
After winning the toss Andhra opted to put opposition Punjab in to bat first. Jaskaran Singh and Anmolpreet Singh were back in the pavilion with only 4 runs on the board. It was due to credible knocks from Shubman Gill, Mandeep Singh, Gurkeerat Singh, and a ton from Sanvir Singh, that Punjab managed to post a competitive total of 414 on the board.
In reply, Andhra was reduced to 39/3 and nearly pushed to the walls. But it was Ricky Bhui who played an outstanding knock on Day 3 to rescue Andhra from a precarious position. Bhui, shouldering the responsibility, scored 181 to save the match for Andhra. He was ably supported by Srikar Bharat and Bodapati Sumanth.
The trio had 2 century stands among themselves to help Andhra manage a draw. He was finally dismissed by Anmolpreet Singh in the 146th over but Andra was out of danger by then and managed to take the first innings lead as well.