Sheldon Jackson’s whirlwind 181, and Ravindra Jadeja’s 150 not out put Saurashtra in a commanding position against J & K on the first day of the second round of Ranji Trophy 2017-18. Bengal’s Koushik Biplab Ghosh and Team Rajasthan’s AV Gautam were other centurions of the day. Piyush Chawla claimed 5/69 for Gujarat against Kerala.
While the Yuvraj Singh-led Punjab were bowled out for 161 in their backyard by Vidarbha, the Karnataka spinners bundled out Assam for a paltry total.
Here are the highlights of the day:
Group ARailways vs Delhi in New Delhi: After being left on 34 for three, valuable contributions by the middle-order helped Delhi to 318 for six until the end of day’s play at the Karnail Singh Stadium. Anureet Singh dealt the first blow by claiming Gautam Gambhir (2) with six runs on the board. 19 runs later Unmukt Chand was run out by Abhishek Yadav while Anureet followed up with the wicket of Dhruv Shorey.
Nitish Rana (89) and Himmat Singh (45) rescued the innings with a 109-runs stand until Avinash Yadav sent the latter back. With the team on 200, Rana was dismissed by Shivakant Shukla. Anuj Rawat then helped Delhi past the 300-run mark with Manan Sharma.
Rawat had contributed with a patient 152-ball 74 until he was sent back by Anureet while Manan was batting on 68 when play ended for the day.
Scorecard -
http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/22Hyderabad vs Uttar Pradesh in Hyderabad: No play on the first day due to overnight rain.
Karnataka vs Assam in Mysore: K Gowtham (4/20) and Shreyas Gopal (3/43) spun Assam out for 145 after Vinay Kumar elected to field. The Karnataka captain claimed 2/17 while Stuart Binny chipped in with a wicket. Skipper Gokul Sharma was the highest-scorer for Assam with 55 off 114 balls while the rest of the lineup caved in to the hosts attack.
In reply, Samarth R and Mayank Agarwal had taken Karnataka to 77 without loss on Day 1. The home team were trailing by 68 runs when play ended for the day.
Scorecard -
www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/24Group B Saurashtra vs J & K in Rajkot: From 59 for three, Sheldon Jackson and Ravindra Jadeja powered Saurashtra to 428 for four on Day 1 in Rajkot.
Mohammed Mudhasir claimed K Parmar with 16 runs on the board while Cheteshwar Pujara was sent back by Parvez Rasool for 13. In the next over, Ram Dayal removed Robin Uthappa for 37 to peg the hosts on the back-foot. Sheldon and Jadeja then milked the opposition during their 281-run partnership to seize the advantage.
While Sheldon clobbered the J & K attack until being sent back for 181 (off 156) by Waseem Raza, Jadeja was patiently batting on 150 (off 223) when play ended for the day.
Scorecard -
http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/19Team Rajasthan vs Jharkhand in Jaipur: Opener AV Gautam took Team Rajasthan to Stumps at 250 for four with an unbeaten 103 off 241 balls. He was batting with TN Dhillon (66*) when play ended for the day. Ashok Menaria had chipped in with a half-century to help keep the innings in the fray.
Scorecard -
http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/20 Gujarat vs Kerala in Nadiad: With a five-wicket haul in his first match for Gujarat, Piyush Chawla helped bowl Kerala out for 208. He was well complimented by SA Desai, who claimed three wickets while CT Gaja picked two. Sanju Samson was the top-scorer for Kerala with 51 runs while captain Sachin Baby made 49 off 80 balls.
In reply the defending champions were 60 for two at Stumps. SB Gohil (26*) was batting with Gaja (2*) when play ended for the day.
Scorecard -
http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/21Group CBaroda vs Andhra in Vadodara: Opener Kedar Devdhar’s patient 192-ball 93 complimented by Vishnu Solanki’s 146-ball 61 helped Baroda to a respectable 247 for seven on the first day. Left on 43 for two the pair stitched a 134-run stand for the third wicket to shape the Baroda innings. However, after the opener was sent back for 93 by IK Raman the hosts lost wickets at regular intervals.
Ayyappa Bandaru claimed 3/46 while IK Raman took two wickets.
Swapnil Singh and A Sheth were batting on 30 and 16 respectively when play ended for the day.
Scorecard -
http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/13Madhya Pradesh vs Mumbai in Indore: Naman Ojha (99* off 241) and Ankit Sharma (63*) had taken MP to 250 for five with an unbroken 112-run stand when play ended for the day.
Earlier, Royston Dias and debutant Akash Parkar claimed Rajat Patidar and Harpreet Singh Bhatia respectively to leave the hosts on 15 for two. Wicketkeeper-batsman, Ojha, who then came to the crease anchored the MP innings until Stumps.
Parker claimed two wickets while Abhishek Nayar, Dias and Vijay Gohil picked a wicket each.
Scorecard -
http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/14Tamil Nadu vs Tripura in Chennai: K Vignesh struck on the first ball while L Vignesh claimed U Bose a bit later to leave Tripura on 18 for two after Abhinav Mukund elected to field. However, SK Patel (99) and Yashpal Singh’s (96) 162-run partnership for the fourth wicket revived the visitors’ innings after being left struggling on 41 for three. MS Washington Sundar accounted for Patel and followed up with the wicket of A Dey to leave Tripura on 208 for five. After the end of the solid stand Tripura once again struggled to score of the TN attack. R Ashwin sent back Yashpal while Gurinder Singh’s laboured 54-ball 13-run effort was ended by Vignesh K.
MB Murasingh and Rana Dutta took Tripura to stumps at 244 for seven.
Scorecard -
http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/18
Group D
Chhattisgarh vs Bengal in Raipur: Openers Abhishek Kumar Raman and Koushik Biplab Ghosh set the platform for a solid total with a 159-run opening stand after Bengal were asked to bat by the hosts.
SA Singh sent back Raman, six runs short of his century to give Chhattisgarh their first wicket. Gosh then added 98 with Sudip Chatterjee (58*) until he was run out for 114 runs. The No 3 bat then took Bengal to Stumps at 283 for two with skipper Manoj Tiwary (14*).
Scorecard -
http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/17Punjab vs Vidarbha in Mohali: Punjab were skittled out for 161 by the Vidarbha pacers after electing to bat at their home ground. The hosts lost both their openers – Manan Vohra and Jiwanjot Singh without a run on the board. Lalit Yadav, who claimed Vohra also accounted for Yuvraj Singh (20) while RN Gurbani, who dismissed Jiwanjot accounted for Pargat Singh to leave Punjab on 35 for five.
Abhishek Gupta put up a fighting 93-ball 89 while wickets crumbled at the other end. SS Neral who had earlier accounted for Mayan Siddana later claimed Sandeep Sharma and MS Grewal while A Karnewar sent back Abhishek Gupta and Brainder Sran off successive deliveries to wrap-up the innings.
Although Vidarbha then lost Faiz Fazal with 61 runs on the board, SR Ramasawamy and Wasim Jaffer saw the visitors through to the end of day’s play. They had taken Vidarbha to 106 for one until play ended for the day.
Scorecard -
http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/15 Himachal vs Goa in Dharamsala: P Jaswal claimed both the Goa openers to leave the visitors on 19 for two. After 42 runs, he claimed Amogh Desai and then a bit later followed up with the wicket of Reagan Pinto to leave the visitors on 101 for four.
Adding to the visitors woes, skipper Sagun Kamat was removed by GK Singh without a run added to the board. HP continued to strike at regular intervals until Samar Dubhashi found an able partner in RR Singh (55 off 61). The pair added 85 runs for the ninth wicket until the former was trapped lbw by Rishi Dhawan. The pacer bowled Felix Alemao off the next ball to bowl Goa out for 255.
HP were 2/0 when play ended for the day.
Scorecard -
http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/16 
