MP opener, Jalaj Saxena was the only batsman to score a century on the first day of round three of the Ranji Trophy 2014-15. Tripura’s Rana Dutta claimed a fifer while Railways’ K Upadhyay, Delhi’s Parvinder Awana returned with four-wicket hauls at the end of Day 1. Here are the highlights for the day:
Baroda vs J&K: At the Reliance Stadium in Vadodara, J&K were 266/6 at the end of day’s play against Baroda. Asked to bat, Shubham Khajuria and Adil Reshi got the visitors off to a good start with a 93-run opening stand until the former was sent back by Swapnil Singh. A few overs later the bowler also claimed his opening partner to leave J&K on 96/2. Sagar Manglorkar accounted for Bandeep Singh and Ian Dev Singh while Swapnil claimed two more to return with four wickets at the end of the day. When play ended Parvez Rasool was batting on 65, Samiullah Beigh on one.
Railways vs Karnataka: Electing to bat, Karnataka were 207/7 against hosts Railways at stumps on the first day. K Upadhyay claimed four wickets while Ranjitkumar Mali picked two and Avinash Yadav took one. When play ended, CM Gautam was batting on 31 with S Gopal on 14.
Tamil Nadu vs Madhya Pradesh: Jalaj Saxena propelled MP to 250 for four on the first day after visitors elected to bat in Chennai. The experienced opener was batting on 120 with Devendra Bundela on 21 at stumps on the first day. For Chennai, Malolan Rangarajan picked two wickets while Aushik Srinivas and Rahil Shah took a wicket each.
Uttar Pradesh vs Mumbai: Asked to bat Uttar Pradesh were 115/1 at stumps in Kanpur against Mumbai. Shardul Thakur removed Mukul Dagar with 28 runs on the board but Tanmay Shrivastava and Prashant Gupta carried the innings forward with losing further wickets until play was called off. While the opener was one short of his half-century, Gupta was batting on 41 at stumps.
Delhi vs Rajasthan: Parvinder Awana and Navdeep Saini claimed four and three wickets respectively to help bowl Rajasthan out for a meager 141 runs on the first day at the Kotla. Middle-order bat Rajesh Bishnoi was the top-scorer for the visitors with 57 as the rest of the lineup caved in to Delhi’s attack. When play ended, Delhi were 10/1 with captain Gautam Gambhir castled for zero by Aniket Choudhary.
Haryana vs Vidarbha: Vidarbha were 101/3 at stumps in Lahli after being asked to bat by Haryana. J Sharma sent back opener R Ramaswamy for a duck with just three runs on the board while A Hooda removed Ganesh Satish and S Badrinath later. But opener Faiz Fazal anchored the innings and was batting on 42 with Shalabh Shrivastava on 10 at stumps.
Maharashtra vs Punjab: Siddharth Kaul sent back the Maharashtra openers in the first ten overs to set the ball rolling in Pune. The pacer claimed three wickets while Sandeep Sharma, Maninder and Harbhajan Singh picked two each and Yuvraj Singh took one to bowl the hosts out for 210 on the first day. With 56 runs, R Tripathi was the top-scorer for Maharashtra. Samad Fallah then removed Punjab opener Uday Kaul with five runs on the board but Jiwanjot Singh (16*) and Amitoze Singh (8*) to the visitors to stumps at 26/1.
Saurashtra vs Gujarat: Gujarat bowled Saurashtra out for 207after the hosts elected to bat in Rajkot. Axar Patel returned with 4/72 while Kushang Patel took two wickets and Rush Kalaria, Jesal Karia and Rujul Bhatt picked one each to bowl the opposition out. At stumps, Gujarat’s Samit Gohel was yet to open his account while Priyank Panchal was batting on three.
Goa vs Himachal Pradesh: Electing to bat on their home ground, Goa were 274/7 at stumps. Although they lost the top and middle-order at frequent intervals earlier in the day, Darshan Misal’s effort helped stabilise the innings tottering innings. He was complemented by Saurabh Bandekar and Shadab Jakati who scored 40 and 44 respectively in reviving the innings. When play ended, Misal was batting on 89 with R D’souza on three. Vikramjeet Malik and Gurvinder Singh claimed two wickets apiece while Rishi Dhawan, Raghav Dhawan and Karanveer Singh chipped in with a wicket each.
Jharkhand vs Tripura: Tripura were trailing by 70 runs with eight wickets in hand after the Rana Dutta-led Tripura attack bowled Jharkhand out for 142. MB Murasingh and Dutta reduced the opposition to 18/4. Dutta claimed the middle-order with Abhijit Sarakar striking to remove the lower middle-order. Kumar Deobrat made a valiant 75 for Jharkhand while wickets continued to fall at the other end. Dutta finished with 5/64 while Murasingh and Sarkar took two wickets apiece. Jharkhand’s Kaushal Singh then took two wickets upfront to leave Tripura on 15/2 but Bisal Ghosh (25*) and Rakesh Solanki (40*) revived the innings and took the team to stumps without further event.
Kerala vs Hyderabad: After Kerala elected to field, Sandeep Warrier and P Anthaf struck early to leave Hyderabad reeling on 39/3. But G Hanuma Vihari rallied on to hold the innings together with 76 off 160 balls. However, with the Kerala attack picking wickets at regular intervals, Hyderabad were 225/7 at stumps. Ibrahim Khaleel was batting on 35 with Ashish Reddy on 34 at the end of day’s play.
Services vs Andhra: Put in to bat, Andhra Pradesh were 160/3 at stumps against Services. AG Pradeep was batting on 47 with A Rakesh on 15 when play ended on the first day at the Palam A ground in Delhi.
By: BCCI
