With a seven-wicket win against Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy 2016-17 quarter-finals in under two days, Tamil Nadu became the first team to qualify for the semi-finals. In the match dominated by the pacers, Dinesh Karthik played crucial knocks in both innings of his 100th Ranji Trophy match as Tamil Nadu registered a thumping win.
With Tanmay Agarwal and S Badrinath posting crucial half-centuries, the match between Mumbai and Hyderabad is precariously poised. In Jaipur, pacers have tipped the balance in Gujarat’s favour against Odisha. And in their match against Haryana, Virat Singh and Ishank Jaggi have put Jharkhand in an advantageous position.
Ranji Trophy 2016-17 QF, Day 2 roun-up:
Mumbai vs Hyderabad in Raipur: Mumbai 1st inn 294/10 (S Lad 110, A Nayar 59, CV Milind 5/80, Mohd. Siraj 4/64); Hyderabad 1st inn 166/3 in 76 overs (T Agarwal 63*, S Badrinath 56, A Nayar 3/26) Hyderabad trail by 128 runs
After they had bowled Mumbai out in the first session, Tanmay Agarwal anchored the Hyderabad innings and took them to stumps at 166 for three.
Although Shardul Thakur bowled a tight spell, he couldn’t give Mumbai early wickets, but it was once again the experience campaigner Abhishek Nayar who did the needful. The all-rounder claimed Akshath Reddy and B Anirudh before lunch to reduce Hyderabad to 30 for two. With captain S Badrinath, Agarwal saw the team through Lunch at 35 for two. The pair determinedly stitched a partnership to lay the foundation for a solid reply to Mumbai’s first innings total. Their partnership was ended for 105 by the medium pacer, who was the only Mumbai bowler to take wickets on the second day.
With B Sandeep, Agarwal then took Hyderabad to the end of day’s play in an unbroken 31-run stand. Earlier, Mumbai lost their remaining five wickets for the addition of 44 runs after resuming their innings on 250 for five on the second morning. Siddhesh Lad was the first to be sent back; caught by wicketkeeper K Sumanth off Ravi Kiran for 110 while CV Milind trapped Abhishek Nayar lbw to reduce Mumbai to 286 for seven. Without a run added to the scoreline, Shardul Thakur and Akshay Girap were sent back by Mohammed Siraj of successive deliveries in the next over. Eight runs later, Milind wrapped up the innings for 294 with the wicket of Tushar Deshpande to complete his five-for.
Tamil Nadu vs Karnataka in Vizag: Kar 1st inn 88/10 in 37.1 overs (M Pandey 28, A Crist 6/31, T Natarajan 3/18); TN 1st inn 152/10 in 53.3 overs (D Karthik 31, Sreenath Arvind 3/16, S Gopal 2/1); Kar 2nd inn 150/10 in 38.1 overs (KL Rahul 77, K Vignesh 4/53, T Natarajan 3/40); TN 2nd inn 87/3 in 19.3 overs (D Karthik 41*, A Mithun 1/7) TN won by 7 wickets
Tamil Nadu lost wickets in a cluster after resuming their first innings on 111 for four in the morning. Vinay Kumar accounted for Dinesh Karthik in the second over of the day without a run being added to the scoreline and A Sreenath sent back Baba Aparajith in the next. 24 runs later, the Karnataka captain struck again to send back Aswin Crist while Abhimanyu Mithun followed up with the wicket of Abhinav Mukund to reduce TN to 136 for eight. Shreyas Gopal then wrapped up the innings with the wickets of Vignesh K and T Natarajan to bowl TN out for 152.
Trailing by 64 runs, Karnataka came out to bat the second time and were bowled out by the TN pace trio for 150. Vignesh (4/53), Natarajan (3/40) and Crist dismantled the Karnataka batting lineup for the second time. While KL Rahul tried to hold the innings together with a valiant 94-ball 77-run effort, the rest of the lineup caved in to the TN attack.
Chasing the 87-run target, TN were 35 for three but, Dinesh Karthik then took the team to the finish line with an unbeaten 41-run knock.
Gujarat vs Odisha in Jaipur: Gujarat 1st inn 263/10 in 95.4 overs (C Gandhi 81, R Kalaria 73, B Mohanty 5/68); Odisha 184/8 in 69 overs (S Pradhan 47, S Pattanaik 43, J Bumrah 4/33, R Kalaria 2/35) Trail by 79 runs
After Chirag Gandhi and Rush Kalaria resumed the Gujarat innings on 197 for six, Basant Mohanty accounted for the latter to end the seventh wicket partnership for 154 and left Odisha on 225 for seven. 13 runs later, he followed up with the wicket of the middle-order bat as well. While Dhiraj Singh accounted for Mehul Patel, the pacer claimed Jasprit Bumrah to bowl Gujarat out for 263 in the first session.
Kalaria then claimed Ranjit Singh to leave Odisha on one for one. However, S Pattanaik and S Senapati added 82 runs until the former was sent back by H Patel. With Bumrah, the left-arm pacer then wrecked the Odisha middle-order to leave them reeling at 101 for seven. In an effort to rebuild the innings, Deepak Behera and Suryakant Pradhan (47) worked to stitch a stand. However, the partnership for the eight wicket was ended by Rujul Bhatt. The bowler claimed Pradhan off his own bowling to reduce Odisha to 173 for eight.
Behera and Mohanty then took the side to stumps at 184 for eight.
Haryana vs Jharkhand in Vadodara: Haryana 1st inn 258/10 in 95.3 overs (S Pahal 39, S Nadeem 7/79); Jharkhand 1st inn 228/3 in 82 overs ( V Singh 81*, I Jaggi 77*, H Patel 1/24) Trail by 30 runs
Shahbaz Nadeem claimed overnight batsmen S Pahal and Harshal Patel while Rahul Shukla castled Mohit Sharma to bowl Haryana out for 258 after resuming on 251 for seven. The left-arm spinner finished with seven wickets in the innings.
Yuzvendra Chahal then claimed Anand Singh as Jharkhand lost the first wicket for nine runs while Amit Mishra followed up with the wicket of Sumit Singh 37 runs later. However, Virat Singh anchored the Jharkhand innings with a mature knock and tipped the balance in Jharkhand’s favour. Although captain, Saurabh Tiwary too, was sent back early; caught by Rajat Paliwal off Harshal Patel for 23, the No 3 batsman found an ally in Ishank Jaggi to shape the innings.
In an unbroken 146-run partnership for the fourth wicket, Virat and Jaggi took Jharkhand to stumps at 228 for three. They were trailing by just 30 runs with seven wickets in hand at the end of day’s play.
