Ranji Trophy debutants Chhattisgarh kick started their campaign with a thumping win against Tripura in their first ever outing in the prestigious tournament.
Centurion Bavanka Sandeep helped Hyderabad to a solid first innings lead against Goa while Joginder Sharma anchored Haryana to first innings lead with a valiant 46 not out on the penultimate day’s play against Services in Mumbai.
Group C, Round 1 – Day 3 Round-up:
Tripura vs Chhattisgarh in Ranchi: Tripura 1st inn 118/10 in 54 overs (A Dey 32, Y Singh 26, A Mandal 3/41, P Sinha 2/13, A Singh 2/20, S Ruikar 2/20); Chhattisgarh 1st inn 255/10 in 103.5 overs (Ashutosh Singh 140, Mohd. Kaif 27, A Dey 4/26); Tripura 2nd inn 149/10 in 84.3 overs (S Patel 26, A Mandal 4/55, S Ruikar 2/34, P Sinha 2/39); Chhattisgarh 2nd inn 13/1 in 3.5 overs (R Tiwari 8, S Gupta 5*) Win by 9 wickets
Trailing by 127 runs at the end of Day 2, Tripura resumed their innings on 10 with all wickets intact on the third morning. However, the Ajay Mandal-led attack bowled the team out for 149 later in the day. The spinner set the ball rolling with the wicket of Bishal Gosh with 22 runs on the board. Along with pacer Pratik Singh, he wrecked the top order. While Mandal, who finished with a four-for, claimed three of the top five, Pratik picked two and Sumit Ruikar chipped in with two wickets to bowl the opposition out.
With a paltry 13-run target to chase, Sahil Gupta took the team to their first win on debut.
Hyderabad vs Goa in Nagpur: Goa 1st inn 164/10 in 74 overs (S Bandekar 59, Md Siraj 4/14, R Kiran 2/30, V Sharma 2/42); Hyderabad 1st inn 388/10 in 130 overs (A Reddy 128, B Sandeep 108, M Hasan 62, A Yadav 3/73, D Misal 2/29); Goa 2nd inn 5/0 in 2.3 overs; Trail by 219 runs.
While Akshath Reddy (128) was out after adding 23 runs to his overnight score, Hyderabad were boosted by B Sandeep’s century and M Hasan’s valuable 62. The contributions helped the side to a 224-run first innings lead in the four-day game before being bowled out for 388 later in the day. At stumps, Goa were on five runs with openers Amogh Desai and Swapnil Asnodkar in the middle.
Haryana vs Services at Brabourne Stadium (Mumbai): Services 1st inn 197/10 in 73 overs (A Gupta 69, SU Yadav 29, R Paliwal 3/14, Y Chahal 2/41); Haryana 1st inn 248/10 in 89.5 overs (S Rohilla 92, J Sharma 46*,V Yadav 4/80, K Ahmad 4/86); Services 2nd inn 148/2 in 44 overs (N Verma 54*, A Gupta 40, C Bishnoi 1/19) Lead by 97 runs.
Haryana lost their remaining seven wickets for an addition of 131 runs to their overnight total on the third day. After opener Khalid Ahmad and V Yadav picked wickets at regular intervals. Although wickets continued to fall, J Sharma kept the innings in fray with a unbeaten 119-run knock to help the team seize a valuable 51-run first innings lead. He was stranded on 46 when he ran out on partners.
While Y Chahal accounted for Soumik Chatterjee to end the opening stand for 33, Anshul Gupta was bowled for 40 by C K Bishnoi a while later. Nakul Verma (54*) then took Services to stumps with Ravi Chauhan.
Kerala vs Jammu & Kashmir in Kolkata: Kerala 1st inn 306/10 in 102.1 overs (S Samson 154, S Beigh 6/82); J & K 1st inn 106/5 in 29 overs (A Reshi 40, I Abdullah 3/32, K Monish 2/6) Trail by 200 runs
Samiullah Beigh and Ram Dayal wrapped up the Kerala innings for 306 after they had resumed the third day on 282 for seven. While Beigh picked two to finish with six wickets in the innings, Dayal accounted for Sanju Samson (154) who was the mainstay of the lineup.
Kerala’s left-arm spinners, Iqbal Abdullah, who has transferred to the team from Mumbai this season and K Monish left J &K on 106 for five at stumps. Ending the opening stand for 57, Iqbal finished the day with three wickets in the bag while Monish accounted for the key wickets of Ian Dev Singh and Parvez Rasool.
Himachal vs Andhra in Bhubaneshwar: Himachal 1st inn 357/10 in 93.2 overs (S Verma 142, Stephen 3/74); Andhra 1st inn 47/1 in 14 overs (DB Prashanth Kumar 21*, GH Vihari 20*, R Dhawan 1/9) Trail by 310 runs
After losing the entire second day’s play to inclement weather, Himachal resumed their innings on 318 for seven and were bowled out for 357 on the third day. Bhargav Bhatt claimed S Verma for 142 to wrap up the innings.
Rishi Dhawan then trapped opener KS Bharat for six with Andhra on 12. When the day’s play ended, Andhra were 47 for one with DB Prashanth Kumar and GH Vihari at the crease.
