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Ranji Trophy Day Two: Ravindra Jadeja steamroll flattens Hyderabad, defending champions shocked by Sehwag's Haryana

Sudip Chatterjee was the star for Bengal; Ravindra Jadeja turned up with the golden arm for Saurashtra, again

Ravindra Jadeja took 7 wickets on Friday, his sixth 5-wicket haul in as many innings, as Hyderabad collapsed to a 35-run defeat to Saurashtra in Rajkot – the only outright result to have been achieved already in the ongoing round of Ranji Trophy matches.

Saurashtra have won all their matches this season and top Group C, on the back of Jadeja’s stunning show with the ball. He now has 37 wickets from the first three matches of the Ranji season. He is only the third player in the tournament’s history to have taken three 10-fors in the first three matches of the season – after CS Nayudu in the 1940s and Lakshmipathy Balaji in 2002/03.

Both Cheteshwar Pujara and Jadeja failed to shine with the bat for Saurashtra, however, managing scores of 4 and 5 over two innings.

Delhi struggle as outcasts make merry

In Mysore, defending champions Karnataka wilted against Virender Sehwag-inspired Haryana, conceding a first innings deficit of 110 runs. KL Rahul (63) top-scored for them, with Manish Pandey having being declared absent hurt. Karun Nair chipped in with 28, but it was Vinay Kumar’s 34 in the lower order which gave the score some respectability.

Haryana, who are currently languishing at the bottom of Group A, can draw level with fourth-placed Karnataka if they manage to get 6 points with a win in Mysore by Sunday.

In another Group A match in the Feroze Shah Kotla, Delhi are struggling against Bengal at the close of the day, trailing by 257 runs and having lost both Unmukt Chand and Gautam Gambhir early on. Sudip Chatterjee (116) was the highest scorer among the visitors and was provided able support by Manoj Tiwary (55) and Wriddhiman Saha (72).

Delhi currently lead Group A, and if Bengal manage to maintain their dominance and grind out a win, they will break into the top three.

Virender Sehwag was not the only Delhi outcast to make merry in this round of the Ranji Trophy – Rajat Bhatia, turning out for Rajasthan, scored a 59 in a mid-table clash against Maharashtra. Mithun Manhas, another veteran snubbed by Delhi this season, scored 96 for Jammu and Kashmir.

Nayar rescues Bombay after Iyer 173

Group B is seeing some high-scoring encounters being played out, with the points sure to be awarded on the basis of first-innings leads. In Patiala, Punjab are at 182/2, with Mandeep Singh and Uday Kaul at the crease, trailing Madhya Pradesh by 188.

Mumbai collapsed from 323/3 to 328/8 against Baroda in Vadodara after Shreyas Iyer was dismissed for 173, but Abhishek Nayar played a lone hand to take the score to 447. Baroda will resume Day 3 at 133/1.

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