Ranji Trophy 2016-17 semi-finals: Day 1 Review

On the first morning of the New Year four teams walked out at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur and the Saurashtra Cricket Association in Rajkot with a lot at stake. Two of them Tamil Nadu and Gujarat had the first smile as the coin tossed their way. But Mumbai and Jharkhand wouldn’t mind that much given the journey they have had in the Ranji Trophy 2016-17. The two semi-final clashes got underway and on the first day, one team on the opposite side has the advantage.

Tamil Nadu v Mumbai:

Abhinav Mukund decided to bat first and walked out to open the batting with his partner VGS Raju. It was a good toss to win given the wicket was a good one for batting and didn’t show signs of helping the quicks at least on the first morning. They were off to a good start but after his opening bowlers failed to get the team a breakthrough Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare brought in the veteran medium pacer Abhishek Nayar into the attack.

Nayar struck immediately and removed Raju for 19. Tamil Nadu would have wanted to make that a one off blow and carry on with Mukund and No.3 Kaushik Gandhi but Balvinder Shandhu Jr on the penultimate ball of the 27th over had the TN skipper caught by Tare for 38 and that was a huge wicket for the defending champs.

Tamil Nadu then initiated recovery with Gandhi and Baba Indrajith who both scored half centuries and took the team total over 150. Just when it appeared like they have the momentum going their way Mumbai spearhead Shardul Thakur got into the act and Tare was once again in business behind the wicket pocketing another catch. Inderjith was on his way back having scored 64 from 114 deliveries with nine boundaries. Nayar had his second success in the form of Gandhi and that was another crucial wicket which handed Mumbai the advantage of the day.

Shardul picked Dinesh Karthik early for 16. Baba Aparajith also couldn’t last long and was sent back by left-arm spinner Vijay Gohil. TN ended the day on 261/6 with Vijay Shankar and A Aswin unbeaten on 41 and 9 respectively. The defending champs would want to bowl them out early tomorrow and seize the first innings advantage.

Brief Scores:

Tamil Nadu – 261/6 (B Inderjith 64; A Nayar 2/56)

Gujarat v Jharkhand:

The young Jharkhand team playing its first ever Ranji Trophy semi-final are up against a rampant Gujarat team. They boast of the leading run-scorer in the tournament along with the veteran Parthiv Patel in the batting lineup along with the likes of RP Singh and Jasprit Bumrah in the bowling department.

Gujarat had a stable start with Samit Gohel and the consistent Priyank Panchal. While the latter did most of the scoring and they had a fifty plus partnership Gohel fell to Vikash Singh in the 19th over for 18 and they lost the first batter on 62. Bhargav Merari then joined Panchal who has been at his best this season leading the batsmen’s chart. Merari also fell to Vikash while the opener continued to develop his innings.

Skipper Patel then had a crucial partnership with the youngster that saw Panchal score his 5th century of the season and go past the 1200-run aggregate mark. Parthiv played an attacking knock and scored quick runs but towards the end of the day was dismissed for 62. Panchal remained unbeaten at the end of the day on 144; during his knock he toppled Wasim Jaffer as the fourth highest run-scorer for a season in the Ranji Trophy history and is in manageable distance from VVS Laxman’s all-time highest tally of 1415 runs.

Brief Scores:

Gujarat – 283/3 (P Panchal 144*; V Singh 2/48)