Ranji Trophy 2017-18, Round 4, Day 2: Review

The second day of the fourth round of the ongoing season of Ranji Trophy saw the stronger teams extending their advantage as expected. The day was highlighted by the double century from Cheteshwar Pujara who scored 204 runs for Saurashtra as his team amassed 553/9 and declared their innings. Jharkhand in reply lost a couple of quick wickets and could score only 52 runs until stumps at the end of the day 2. Mayank Agarwal was another double centurion (219*) of the day and helped Karnataka take lead against Maharashtra in Pune. The visiting team lost only two wickets in the day and added 344 runs to the overnight score.

Ravikumar Samarth also notched up his century and was dismissed on 129. They would now look to achieve an outright victory and bag full points from this match. Hyderabad declared their innings on 471/9 thanks to the wonderful ton by their skipper Ambati Rayudu (112). Railways lost one of their openers and posted 35 runs on the board before the umpires called stumps. The match between Uttar Pradesh and Delhi is hanging in balance as both teams are looking to steal an all-important first innings lead. The visitors were bowled out for 291 early on day 2 and Delhi managed to score 228 runs for the loss of six wickets thanks to the stupendous knock from Gautam Gambhir who scored 86 runs before being sent back into the hut.

Kerala earned a crucial lead of 46 runs by bundling Jammu and Kashmir out for a paltry score of 173. Akshay KC was the star bowler for them and picked up 4/37. The home team extended their lead to 91 and lost a wicket in the process. Gujarat, the defending champions, bossed the second day against Haryana and made a stellar comeback in the game. They skittled them out for only 157 and then looked comfortable in their second essay scoring 110/2 by the end of the day. Piyush Chawla scalped a four-fer for Gujarat and led the bowling attack from the front.

Baroda posted a mammoth total of 521 in front of Tripura and have almost assured themselves the first-innings lead. The visiting team though have started solidly in reply and will have to respond strongly to earn points from this game. They finished the day on 63/1 with 458 runs behind the hosts’ score. Vidarbha scored 385 runs before getting bowled out as they reduced Services to 141/4 courtesy Akshay Wakhare who scalped 3/43. Mumbai once again proved why they are the champion team in Ranji Trophy by bowling out Odisha for just 145 and earned a huge lead of 144. But they were also guilty of losing 3 quick wickets for the score of 58. Nevertheless, they are the favourites to win the game now as they have a lead of 202.

Madhya Pradesh is also set to take the lead against Andhra who are struggling at 177/5 replying to the score of 321. The lower middle order needs to chip in big time for Andhra to have any chances of coming back in the match. Anmolpreet Singh is looking good for a brilliant double century as Punjab piled on the agony of Chhattisgarh. Anmolpreet remained unbeaten on 171 and he was supported well by Gurkeerat Mann who scored 111 as the visitors ended the day on 481/6, 243 runs ahead of the hosts. Bengal is set to take a big first innings lead against Himachal as they huffed and puffed to 163/5 at stumps on day 2. The home team earlier posted 419 runs in their first innings Abhishek Kumar Raman (176) and Manoj Tiwary (123) notched up centuries.

Brief Scores

Group A

Maharashtra 245/10 (RA Tripathi 120, NS Shaikh 69; Vinay Kumar 6/59) vs Karnataka 461/2 (Mayank Agarwal 219*, Ravikumar Samarth 129) at Pune

Uttar Pradesh 291/10 (Mohammad Saif 83, Akshdeep Nath 59) vs Delhi 228/6 (Gautam Gambhir 86, Dhruv Shorey 65*) at Delhi

Hyderabad 474/9 dec (Ambati Rayudu 112, B Sandeep 82) vs Railways 35/1 at Delhi

Group B

Kerala 219/10 (Sanju Samson 112; Parvez Rasool 6/70) & 45/1 vs Jammu and Kashmir 173/10 (Akshay KC 4/37) at Trivandrum

Gujarat 236/10 (BH Merai 52; Amit Mishra 4/63) & 110/2 ( P Panchal 61*; Amit Mishra 2/27) vs Haryana 157/10 (RP Sharma 65*; Piyush Chawla 4/58) at Valsad

Saurashtra 553/9 dec (Cheteshwar Pujara 204, Prerak Mankad 85 Chirag Jani 108) vs Jharkhand 52/2 at Rajkot

Group C

Mumbai 291/10 (Prithvi Shaw 105, Ajinkya Rahane 49) & 58/3 (Prithvi Shaw 46) vs Odisha 145/10 (B Samantray 72*; V Gohil 3/26, A Nayar 3/27) at Bhubaneshwar

Madhya Pradesh 321/10 (Harpreet Singh Bhatia 88; Prithvi Raj Yarr 4/56) Andhra 177/5 (H Vihari 77) at Vizianagaram

Baroda 521/10 (Vishnu Solanki 116, Abhijit Karambekar 86, A Seth 95*) vs Tripura 63/1 at Vadodara

Group D

Chhattisgarh 238/10 (Vishal Singh 76, Jatin Saxena 52, SS Ruikar 50; Manpreet Singh Grewal 4/41) Punjab 481/6 (Anmolpreet Singh 171*, Gurkeerat Mann 111, Jiwanjot Singh 75) at Raipur

Bengal 419/10 (Abhishek Kumar Raman 176, Manoj Tiwary 123) vs Himachal Pradesh 163/5 (SL Verma 64) at Kolkata

Vidarbha 385/10 (FY Fazal 136, Ganesh Sathish 78) vs Services 142/4 (G Rahul Singh 57; Akshay Wakhare 3/43) at Nagpur