Ravindra Jadeja torments Jharkhand with all-round performance in Ranji Trophy: Day 1 Roundup
Discarded India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja’s stellar start to the Ranji Trophy continued with an impressive performance in Rajkot. Jharkhand won the toss and opted to bat on a dusty surface. Jadeja’s six-for sent Jharkhand crashing to 168 all out. In reply, as rest of the Saurashtra batsmen including Test specialist Pujara floundered, Jadeja anchored the innings with a rapid 58 from 75 balls. Even though they were bowled out for 205, his innings ensured that Saurashtra gained a handy lead of 37 runs.
Jharkhand 168 all out (Kishan 87, Jadeja 6-71); Saurashtra 205 all out (Jadeja 58, Pujara 27, Nadeem 4-38)
Former India opener Wasim Jaffer suffered another failure for his new team Vidarbha at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium. He was dismissed for 0 as Vidarbha crawled to 222/6 at stumps. Faiz Fazal top-scored with a fighting half-century. The wrecker-in-chief for Delhi was the rejuvenated speedster Ishant Sharma who bullied the opposition batsmen into submission with his awkward angle and steep bounce.
Vidarbha 222/6 (Fazal 56, Badrinath 44, Ishant 3-26)
At the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore, defending champions Karnataka let slip an advantageous start as Bengal managed to recover from 41-4 to 312/9 at stumps. Sudip Chatterjee and Wriddhiman Saha's 5th wicket partnership helped Bengal to a formidable position on a hard surface. While Chatterjee went to post 145, Saha fell agonizingly short of a hundred.
Bengal 312/9 (Chatterjee 145, Saha 90, Sharath 3-47)
The new-ball duo of Shardul Thakur and Balwinder Singh Sandhu ran through the Punjab batting unit at the Wankhede Stadium. The skipper Yuvraj Singh could not contribute much to the dwindling scorecard as the formidable Mumbai outfit restricted Punjab to 154. In reply, Shreyas Iyer’s attacking stroke-play carried Mumbai to a dominant position at 103/2.
Punjab 154 all out (Vohra 34, Yuvraj 13, Sandhu 4-31); Mumbai 103/2 (Iyer 61*, Sran 1-28)
Hardik Pandya’s 5-wicket haul caused a catastrophic collapse in the Railways batting line-up in Vadodara. After being reduced to 89/7, Karn Sharma’s 51 prevented further damage as Railways were dismissed for 166. The Baroda batsmen started strongly to place the team at 118/1.
Railways 166 all out (Karn 51, Pandya 5-61)
Meanwhile in Dharamsala, Parvez Rasool’s unbeaten century enabled Jammu & Kashmir to finish the day at 274/8 against Himachal Pradesh in Dharamsala. Rishi Dhawan was the pick of the Himachal Pradesh bowlers with his precision and control.
Jammu & Kashmir 274/8 (Rasool 101*, Rishi 3-98)
In Vizianagaram, Parthiv Patel dominated the Andhra Pradesh bowlers with a scintillating innings to power Gujarat to 250/5. His enterprising knock contained 18 hits to the fence and he was ably supported by the lower-middle order batsmen.
Gujarat 250/5 (Patel 122, Kumar 3-61)
In Indore, the Tamil Nadu batsmen could not capitalize on their starts to let Madhya Pradesh get back into the match. The middle-order comprising of Baba Aparajith, Dinesh Karthik and Baba Indrajith threw their wickets away with irresponsible shots after they had settled nicely into a rhythm. R Prasanna held fort for the visitors with an unbeaten half-century.
Tamil Nadu 225/5 (Aparajith 56, Prasanna 51*, Birla 2-16)
Harshad Khadiwale and Ankit Bawne combined well to shore up Maharashtra in their encounter against Odisha. The lower-order could face an enormous task in order to take the team to a proficient total.
Maharashtra 231/5 (Khadiwale 74, Bawne 60, Samantaray 3-31)
The Rajasthan XI top-order were watchful against Assam at the Baraspura Cricket Stadium in Guwahati. Syed Mohammad’s tight spell restrained the touring batsmen from imposing themselves.
Rajasthan 147/5 ( Saxena 42, Mohammed 2-43)
Rohan Prem’s patient hundred resisted the Hyderabad bowlers from surging ahead. But, the other Kerala batsmen fell cheaply against a disciplined bowling performance from Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. At stumps, Kerala had labored to 186/5.
Kerala 186/5 (Prem 106*, Samson 1, Bhandari 2-40)
In Porvorim, the Services batting unit took advantage of a wayward Goa bowling attack to reach 230/3. Aanshul Gupta’s 89 was complemented by half-centuries from Soumik Chatterjee and Rajat Paliwal.
Services 230/3 (Gupta 89, Bandekar 1-21)