Siddhesh Lad stitched century stands with Aditya Tare and Abhishek Nayar to revive Mumbai after Hyderabad dealt early blows to leave them tottering at 34 for four. The middle-order batsman’s unbeaten century helped lift the team on Day 1.
In Vadodara, while Shahbaz Nadeem claimed a five-for, the efforts of Haryana’s middle-order kept the match hanging in the balance.
As bowlers dominated the show in Vizag, Tamil Nadu pacers bundled the Karnataka lineup for 88 earlier in the day. Then although TN lost their top-order early, Dinesh Karthik held the innings together and anchored the team to a first innings lead.
Ranji Trophy 2016-17 QF, Day 1 round-up:
Mumbai vs Hyderabad in Raipur: Mumbai inn 250/5 in 90 overs (S Lad 101*, A Tare 73, A Nayar 46*, CV Milind 3/64, Mohd. Siraj 2/58)
Siddhesh Lad returned to Raipur to score his second century of the ongoing Ranji Trophy in his fourth match of the ongoing tournament. The batsman had scored an unbeaten century against Madhya Pradesh in his first game of the current season. Mumbai’s middle-order bat, who has been involved in salvaging the innings for the team on various occasions, did the same on the first day of the quarter-finals. Lad, who had been able to play only three matches until the knockout phase helped the team that from 34 for four. While CV Milind had claimed the top-three Mumbai batsmen including Shreyas Iyer for zero, Mohammed Siraj had accounted for Suryakumar Yadav to push Mumbai on the backfoot after electing to bat.
Lad then joined his skipper, Aditya Tare and played with determination to keep the innings in the fray. The duo forged a 105-run partnership to revive the innings. However, early in the third session, Siraj struck to claim the Mumbai captain for 73 (off 148 balls). Abhishek Nayar then joined the youngster in building the innings further.
Lad brought up his century off 194 balls as he forged another partnership and helped Mumbai seize the advantage back from Hyderabad.
Lad and Nayar were involved in an unbroken 111-stand for the sixth wicket as they saw Mumbai to stumps on the first day with a respectable total on the board.
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 111/4 in 36 overs (V Shankar 34, D Karthik 31*, A Sreenath 2/14) Lead by 23 runs
Tamil Nadu’s pace attack bundled Karnataka’s solid batting lineup out for 88 after Abhinav Mukund opted to bowl. Responding to the captain’s call, Aswin Crist picked six for 31 and T Natarajan took 3 for 18 while K Vighnesh claimed one wicket to seize the advantage.
Natarajan accounted for KL Rahul with four runs on the board while Aswin Crist followed up with the wicket of K Abbas to reduce Karnataka to 10 for two. They ran through the lineup in 37.1 overs to push the opposition into a corner.
The S Arvind-led attack then reduced TN to 33 for three but Dinesh Karthik and Vijay Shankar rebuilt the innings with a 70-run stand for the fourth wicket. Playing in his 100th Ranji Trophy game for TN, the wicket-keeper batsman dropped anchor to help shape the innings. However, the blossoming partnership was ended with V Shankar being run out by Abbas for 34.
With TN on 103 for four, skipper Abhinav Mukund joined Karthik in the middle and the duo took the team to stumps at 111 for four with a 23-run first innings lead.
Gujarat vs Odisha in Jaipur: Gujarat 1st inn 197/6 in 79 overs (C Gandhi 62*, R Kalaria 59*, D Behera 3/36, B Mohanty 2/48)
After Odisha elected to bowl, Deepak Behera claimed Gujarat openers – Priyank Panchal and S Gohil. After the quick wickets, Basant Mohanty followed up with the key wicket of skipper Parthiv Patel. The Odisha bowlers continued to strike at regular intervals and had left Gujarat reeling at 71 for six.
Chirag Gandhi then found an able ally in Rush Kalaria to stem the fall of wickets and revive the innings. The pair negotiated the Odisha bowlers to keep the innings afloat and took the team to stumps. At the end of day’s play, the seventh wicket stand was unbroken on 126 with Gujarat on 197 for six.
Haryana vs Jharkhand in Vadodara: Haryana 1st inn 251/7 in 90 overs (R Paliwal 42, C Bishnoi 41, S Nadeem 5/75)
After Haryana opted to bat, Shahbaz Nadeem reduce the team to 71 for three earlier in the day. The left-arm spinner bowled Shubham Rohilla to end the opening stand for 31 and followed up with the wickets of Nitin Saini and Shivam Chauhan. Rajat Paliwal joined Chaitanya Bishnoi in an effort to stabilize the innings and the pair took the team to Lunch at 102 for three.
However, their partnership for the fourth wicket was ended by the spinner for 83. Nadeem dismantled Paliwal’s stumps to as Haryana lost fourth wicket on 154. In his following over, the bowler accounted for Bishnoi and 36 runs later, Anand Singh accounted for RP Sharma and a bit later, Samar Quadri sent back Amit Mishra.
With Haryana on 195 for seven, Harshal Patel joined Sanjay Pahal and the duo stitched a stand to stem the fall of wickets. They took the team to stumps at 251 for seven in an unbroken 56-run partnership.
