Ranji Trophy 2017-18, Round 3, Day 2, Review

Saurabh Wasakar and Shivakant Shukla batted for about 44 overs on a pleasant day in Guwahati’s Barsapara Cricket Stadium and ensured that Railways get a stronghold at the end of 2nd day’s play of the match. The duo hit 21 boundaries and 2 sixes between them apart from fetching useful runs by sprinting between the wickets. Railways ended the day with a promising 45-run stand between Nitin Bhille and Arindam Ghosh, and with that finds themselves just 20 runs short of Assam’s first innings score with eight wickets in hand. Wasakar made 80 runs while Shukla departed for 86. Assam failed to take their score past 250 and could add just 26 runs before the visitors wrapped up the show. Deepak Bansal turned out to be the most successful bowler for the visitors, as he picked up figures of 4/61.

Hyderabad started the proceedings on 51/3, but their batsmen were involved in a collapse which saw Shreyas Gopal scalp the last five wickets to floor the visitors for 136 in Shimoga. The batters could add only 25 runs after finding themselves in hot water at 111/5. Gopal returned with his best career figures 5/17. Hyderabad came back in the game after Mehdi Hasan made good use of his slow-left-arm spin to grab all four wickets that fell in Karnataka’s second innings. Karun Nair remained unbeaten on 37 and he will have the company of Stuart Binny (26*) tomorrow morning.

Moving on to Group B, Gujarat have taken a 15-run lead after bundling Jammu & Kashmir out for 261. MC Juneja remained unbeaten on stumps and he will look to take his side to a comfortable position before having a go at the cricketers from the valley in their second innings. On the other hand, the duo of Ishank Jaggi and Ishan Kisan have led Jharkhand to 311/6 at the end of second day’s play. Jaggi is not out on 127* while Kisan missed on a hundred by 17 runs.

In Group C, Hanuma Vihari is hitting the headlines for his unbeaten triple hundred (302*). A captain’s knock from Vihari ensured that Andhra have a solid lead before declaring on 584/5. Odisha watched out the late overs and ended the day on 32/1. They will have their task cut out as they now face a daunting task of taking the first-innings lead. Tamil Nadu rode on Baba Aparajith’s 105* as they look to go past Mumbai’s 374.  The visitors are at 239/5 with Aparajith still holding one end up. Mumbai will look to take some early wickets in the first session of day 3 and with that, handsome first innings lead, as the game looks like going the distance.

In Group D, the team that batted first is enjoying the edge. Punjab were bowled out for 635  with Jiwanot Singh scoring a double hundred. For Goa, the experienced campaigner Shadab Jakati picked up a 5-wicket haul before watching his team finish the day on 94 at the loss of one wicket. Moving forward, Services struggled against Himachal Pradesh’s 364, and they find themselves at 153/6 with AP Vashisht turning out to be the wrecker in chief, picking up digits of 4/48.

Brief Scores

Group A:

Maharashtra vs Uttar Pradesh

Maharashtra 312/10 (Ankit Bawne 119; Saurabh Kumar 7/110)

UP 232/7 (Shivam Choudhury 54; Chirag Khurana 4/38)

Karnataka vs Hyderabad

Karnataka 183 and 127/4 ( Karun Nair 37*,Stuart Binny 26*; Mehdi Hasan  4/54)

Hyderabad 136/10 (Kolla Sumanth 68; Shreyas Gopal 5/17)

Assam vs Railways

Assam 244/10 (Tajinder Singh 43; Deepak Bansal 4/61)

Railways 224/2 (Shivakant Shukla 86, Saurabh Wakaskar 80)

Group B:

Kerala vs Rajasthan

Kerala 335/10 (Rohan Prem 86, Jalaj Saxena 79; Lomror 4/51)

Rajasthan 134/6 (Dishant Yagnik 62; Saxena 6/46)

Jammu and Kashmir vs Gujarat

Jammu and Kashmir 261/10 (Shubham Khajuria 54, Ahmad Omar 54; Piyush Chawla 5/92)

Gujarat 276/4 (Manprit Juneja 66*, Priyank Panchal 61)

Haryana vs Jharkhand

Haryana 208/10 (Chaitanya Bishnoi 61*; Sunny Gupta 4/67)

Jharkhand 311/6 (Ishank Jaggi 127, Ishan Kishan 83; A.Chahal 2/68)

Group C:

Mumbai vs Tamil Nadu

Mumbai 374/10 (Prithvi Shaw 123; Vijay Shankar 4/52)

Tamil Nadu 239/5 (Baba Indrajit 105; V. Gohil 2/58)

Andhra vs Odisha

Andhra 584/5 dec (Hanuma Vihari 302*, DB Prashant Kumar 127)

Odisha 32/1 (G Podder 14*; B.Bhatt 1/12)

Tripura vs Madhya Pradesh

Tripura 205/10 (BB Ghosh 65; Ishwar Pandey 3/40)

MP 200/7 (Patidar 79; Murasingh 2/14)

Group D:

Punjab vs Goa

Punjab 635/10 (Jiwanjot Singh 238, Shadab Jakati 5/165 )

Goa 94/1 ( S. Kamat 32; Sidharth Kaul 1/24)

Himachal Pradesh vs Services

Himachal Pradesh 364/10 (NR Gangta 130; VU Yadav 5/91)

Services 153/6 (Navneet Singh 49; Vasisht 4/48)

Chattisgarh vs Vidarbha

Chhattisgarh 489/10 (Amandeep Khare 210, Ashutosh Singh 113; Umesh Yadav 3/87)

Vidarbha 31/1 (Fazal 20*; Sinha 1/14)

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