Ranji Trophy: Virender Sehwag falls for a duck, Jharkhand's Saurabh Tiwary shines

Virender Sehwag

New Delhi - Virender Sehwag‘s embarrassing form with the bat continued as he fell for a duck against Odisha on the first day of the sixth round clash in Ranji Trophy cricket, Friday.

At Veer Sunrendra Sai Stadium in Sambalpur, Sehwag lasted just three balls before being caught by Abhilash Mallick of Suryakant Pradhan that left Delhi at 2/9 in the sixth over. But a patient knock from Gambhir (32) and a valuable innings from Mithun Manhas (92) saved the day for Delhi in the Group A match.

Veteran all-rounder Rajat Bhatia was batting on 71 as Delhi ended the day at 268 for six in the first innings.

In another Group A match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Jharkhand’s Saurabh Tiwary struck a massive unbeaten 175 against table toppers Mumbai and helped his team to a respectable 262 for eight.

With eight wickets lost for 180 runs, Tiwary found an able ally in Shivshankar Rao, who stayed firm at the other end and was content in playing the supporting role, while Tiwary built on the score.

Tiwary posted his highest first class score (previous best was 169) and was batting with Rao (5) when play ended on the first day.

Jharkhand’s Saurabh Tiwary held his own against the hosts and helped his team to a respectable 262 for eight with a 175-run knock at the stumps.

Brief scores:

Group A

Jharkhand 262 for 8 (Tiwary 175 not out, Javed 4-56) v Mumbai

Vidarbha 75 for 1 v Punjab 184 (Mandeep 56, Wagh 3-34)

Delhi 268 for 6 (Manhas 92, Gambhir 32, Sehwag 0, Bhatia 71 not out) v Odisha

Karnataka 18 for 0 v Haryana 247 (Saini 109, Binny 3-43)

Group B

Tamil Nadu 5 for 0 v Baroda 162 (Mistry 68)

Railways 210 for 4 (Arindam Ghosh 88 not out) v Bengal

Uttar Pradesh 86 for 3 v Services 164 (RP Singh 3-38, Chawla 3-62)

Rajasthan 115 for 3 v Madhya Pradesh 115 (N Ojha 21 not out, Pankaj 5-30, Rituraj 3-33)

Group C

Tripura 285 for 2 (Mora Singh 140 not out, Takawale 65 not out) v Hyderabad

Maharashtra 185 for 2 (Khadiwale 79 not out) v Jammu & Kashmir 85 (Fallah 4-32, Mundhe 3-21)

Assam 236 for 8 (Syed Mohammed 90 not out, Gadekar 4-28) v Goa

Himachal 164 for 4 (Bipul 53) v Kerala 214 (Jagadeesh 56, Vinoop 71, Samson 0, Dhawan 2-59)