Ranji Trophy 2016-17: Gujarat v Odisha quarter-final stopped due to awkward pitch behaviour

The Ranji Trophy 2016-17 quarter-finals kicked off today as the eight teams fight out for spots in the semi-finals. While Mumbai too on Hyderabad in Raipur, Tamil Nadu clash with Karnataka at Vizag and another game is played at Vadodara between Haryana and Jharkhand. Amidst the other games starting quite smooth the Gujarat vs Odisha match played at the Sawai Man Singh stadium in Jaipur had to be stopped after Gujarat batting first weren’t comfortable with the behaviour of the pitch.

Gujarat skipper Parthiv Patel who walked in to bat at No.4 took a hit from a particular delivery that was bowled at good length but bounced nastily. He complained about the misbehaviour of the wicket to the on-field umpiresYeshwant Barde and CK Nandan. They had a discussion about it and the players eventually walked off.

The ground staff is working on the wicket and trying to roll it with a light roller to try and settle the pitch. Cricbuzz quoted a Rajasthan Cricket Association official as saying “It was Parthiv who complained about the pitch after getting struck. They are trying to settle it using a light roller,”

During their discussion, the officials pointed at the patch on the pitch where the ball pitched and rose awkwardly. It was not a great start for Gujarat as the Odisha pacers managed to make early inroads and sent back both their openers Samith Gohel and leading run-scorer of the tournament Priyank Panchal for single digit scores. Parthiv didn’t really look comfortable at the crease in his brief stay as he played and missed.

Lunch was called early while the groundsmen tried to get things back to playable level. Gujarat went to lunch two down for 39. The game eventually resumed and Parthiv wasn’t able to carry on for longer and was dismissed on 12. At the time of filing this report Gujarat had lost 4 wickets for 68 runs.