Ranji Trophy 2017-18, Round 4, Day 1 Review

The fourth round of the ongoing Ranji Trophy season commenced on Wednesday as few teams are looking for an outright victory. Maharashtra was bowled out for only 245 batting first as the skipper of Karnataka scalped a magnificent 6/59 at MCA Stadium in Pune. Rahul Tripathi smashed a sensational century and was dismissed for 120 and it was due to his batting that the team could post a total close to 250. The visitors, in reply, finished the day strongly as the openers Mayank Agarwal and Ravikumar Samarth added an unbeaten 117 runs.

Suresh Raina failed yet again for Uttar Pradesh as they scored 270/8  at stumps thanks to the half-centuries from Mohammad Saif and Akshdeep Nath against Delhi. Ishant Sharma and Navdeep Saini kept the batsmen in check and picked two wickets each. Hyderabad, after being invited to bat first by Railways, put on a strong batting display and posted 272 runs for the loss of only three wickets. The skipper Ambati Rayudu (88*) and Bavanaka Sandeep (64) have added an unbeaten stand of 141 runs for the fourth wicket and would look to score a mammoth total on Thursday.

Jammu and Kashmir bundled out Kerala in their home ground for a paltry total of 219 thanks to the six-wicket haul from Parvez Rasool. Sanju Samson was the only batsman who showed resistance and notched up a wonderful century before being sent back for 112 runs. The visitors scored 19 runs as the openers played out a tricky period before the end of the day’s play. Saurashtra romped to a score of 341/5 on the back of an unbeaten century from Cheteshwar Pujara (125*) against Jharkhand in Rajkot. The defending champions were surprisingly bowled out for 236 against Haryana but also came back strongly to snaffle one of their openers without conceding any run before stumps.

Mumbai ended the day struggling on 264/6 despite a heroic knock of 105 from Prithvi Shaw against Odisha in Bhubaneshwar. The international star Ajinkya Rahane could only score 49 but looked fluent in the middle. Baroda who were surrounded with controversy ahead of the game for dropping their skipper Irfan Pathan finished day 1 on a satisfactory score of 304/5 after being 3 down for less than 100 against Tripura. Vishnu Solanki slammed a hundred and Abhijit Karambekar is not-out on 75*. Madhya Pradesh could only post 219 runs for the loss of five wickets after being invited by Andhra to bat first.

11 wickets fell in Raipur in a group D encounter between Chhattisgarh and Punjab. The former team batting first was bundled out for 238 courtesy Manpreet Grewal of the visiting team who returned with the figures of 4/41. Punjab ended the day on 57/1 as the skipper Jiwanjot Singh remained unbeaten 40. Abhishek Kumar Raman shined for Bengal with a massive score of 176 as his team posted 306/5 with the skipper Manoj Tiwary at the crease on 78 against Himachal Pradesh at the iconic Eden Gardens. Faiz Fazal starred for Vidarbha against Services as he grinded the day out in the middle with a score of 128 to his name. The hosts managed 259/3 and would look pile on more runs on day 2.

The teams would look to extend their advantage on the second day as the action heats up in the Ranji Trophy.

Brief Scores

Group A