On the second day of the fourth round of Ranji Trophy 2014-15, Mumbai’s Shardul Thakur and Vidarbha’s R Thakur claimed fifers to put their teams in commanding positions against Bengal and Rajasthan respectively.
While Paras Dogra put HP in driver’s seat with an unbeaten 230, Mandeep Singh’s 235 complemented by Yuvraj Singh’s 182 put Punjab in command. Punjab’s Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Hyderabad’s GH Vihari and Delhi’s Virender Sehwag and Unmukt Chand were among the other century makers on Monday.
Bengal vs Mumbai: Bengal were trailing by 284 runs in the first innings with four wickets in hand at the end of day’s play. After Mumbai were bowled out for 414 earlier in the day, Shardul Thakur ran through the hosts’ top-order and returned with 5/37 at the end of the day. Wilkin Mota claimed the sole wicket of Sudip Chatterjee. Bengal were reeling on 130/6 at stumps with Abhimanyu Easwaran and Suvojit Banerjee in the middle.
Earlier the visitors added 108 runs to their overnight total after resuming on 306/4. While Siddhesh Lad went on to make 64, the rest of the line-up caved in to the Bengal attack. Veerpratap Singh and LR Shukla claimed three wickets each while P Chakraborty and Ashoke Dinda picked two apiece.
Madhya Pradesh v Baroda: After bowling Baroda out for 358 earlier in the day, Madhya Pradesh were 103/3 in the first innings at stumps on Day 2. Sagar Mangalorkar claimed all the three MP wickets that fell today. When play ended on Monday evening Naman Ojha was batting on 19 with Devendra Bundela on 22.
Tamil Nadu vs Railways: In Tamil Nadu play was abandoned for the day due to rain.
Uttar Pradesh vs J&K: UP were 267/5 at stumps on Day 2 after resuming on 113 without loss. Samiullah Beigh sent back Akash Verma to end the opening stand while Waseem Raza claimed two wickets and Ram Dayal, Parvez Rasool took a wicket each. When play ended for the day Arish Alam and E Dwivedi were batting on 38 and 23 respectively.
Delhi vs Gujarat: Virender Sehwag and Unmukt Chand powered Delhi to 425/6 before the hosts declared their innings at Kotla. The experienced campaigner scored 105 after resuming his innings on 53 in the morning. Opener Unmukt Chand who was three short of his century at stumps on Day 1 too made 105 before being sent back by K Patel. In reply, Gujarat were 34/1 at the end of day’s play with Priyank Panchal and Pranjal Sutaria in the middle.
Haryana vs Odisha: Odisha were leading by 105 runs in the first innings with a wicket in hand at stumps on Day 2 against hosts Haryana. Resuming their innings on 39 without loss the visitors’ batsmen made useful contributions even as they lost wickets at regular intervals to gain advantage over the home team. With 39 runs each both the Odisha openers Girija Rout and Nataraj Behera were the top-scorers for the team. At the end of day’s play Odisha were 232/9 with Basant Mohanty and Dhiraj Singh in the middle. Haryana’s Jayant Yadav claimed 6/91 while Mohit Sharma picked 3/38.
Rajasthan vs Vidarbha: R Thakur and Shrikant Wagh bowled Rajasthan out for 188 to help Vidarbha to a 108-run first innings lead. Thakur claimed 5/50 while Wagh picked three and Swapnil Bandiwar and Rakesh Dhruve took a wicket each to put the visitors in a commanding position in Jaipur. Earlier Vidarbha were bowled out for 296 after resuming their first innings on 236/6.
Saurashtra vs Punjab: Mandeep Singh, Yuvraj Singh and Gurkeerat Singh Mann powered Gujarat to a commanding position against Saurashtra before the visitors declared their first innings on 659/7. While Mandeep was run out for 235, Yuvraj was sent back for 182 by Arpit Vasavada and Mann remained unbeaten on 101. Vasavada claimed 3/85 in Punjab’s run-fest in Rajkot. In reply Saurashtra were 27 without loss at stumps on Day 2.
Assam vs Himachal Pradesh: Himachal Pradesh were put in commanding position by double-centurion Paras Dogra and Ankush Bains (156). While the opener was the first to depart on the second morning without adding to his overnight score, Dogra helped the visitors to a mammoth first innings score. Resuming his innings on 76, the middle-order batsman was unbeaten on 230 when HP declared their innings on 549/4 later in the day. In reply, Assam scored 18 runs without losing a wicket and were trailing by 531 runs at stumps on Day 2 in Guwahati.
Hyderabad vs Services: 210/3 at stumps, Hyderabad were trailing by 96 runs in the first innings with seven wickets in hand. Hanuma Vihari was batting on 114 with B Anirudh on 24 when play ended on Monday evening.
Jharkhand vs Kerala: Having bowled Jharkhand out for 337 earlier in the day, Kerala were trailing by 158 runs in the first innings with 5 wickets in hand at stumps. Rituraj Singh claimed Kerala opener KB Pawan in the first over with five runs on the board and 39 runs later sent back VA Jagadeesh for 19. Shahbaz Nadeem then accounted for Amit Verma while Samar Quadri sent back Sachin Baby. Sanju Samson who had held the innings together was sent back by Rituraj later in the day for 89. At the end of day’s play, Rohan Prem was batting on 35 with Raiphi Gomez on three.
Tripura vs Goa: Tripura were trailing by 112 runs in the first innings with 5 wickets in hand at the end of second day’s play. Gauresh Gawas ended the opening stand for 43 with the wicket of Udayan Bose and claimed Subhrajit Roy on the next ball. Amit Yadav then claimed the next three wickets to leave the hosts on 123/5. Tripura captain Abhijit Dey and Kaushal Acharjee then took their team to stumps at 139/5. Earlier Goa were bowled out for 251 after resuming on 234/8.
