Ranji Trophy 2017-18, Round 1, Day 3 Review

The third day of the first round of the ongoing season of Ranji Trophy was the moving day as few matches endured a result. While Uttar Pradesh led by Suresh Raina were humiliated on their home ground by Railways, Haryana also lost to Saurashtra and surrendered meekly in the second innings. Kerala won their match against Jharkhand by 9 wickets whereas the remaining matches are still being fought gamely as the teams are trying to gain an upper hand over each other.

Delhi continued to boss the game against Assam and are most likely to win the game after scoring 435 in reply to 258 posted by the visitors. Assam were reduced to 60/3 by the end of the day trailing by 117 runs and only a miracle can earn them points on the final day. The hosts, on the other hand, would look to close out the game as early as possible on Monday and start the season positively. Navdeep Saini was the star with the ball for them in the second innings after the centuries from Gautam Gambhir and Nitish Rana powered them in the first.

Railways defeated Uttar Pradesh under extraordinary circumstances by 21 runs and defended a meagre total of 94. Avinash Yadav and Anureet Singh wreaked havoc in the opposition camp with 4 and 3 wickets respectively. Only Suresh Raina and Rinku Singh reached double figures for the UP as they were folded for just 72.

Saurashtra and Kerala won their respective games against Haryana and Jharkhand in the low-scoring encounters. In Lahli, the home side failed to cross 150 in both innings and lost the match by an innings and 31 runs. All the bowlers picked wickets for Saurashtra as their skipper Cheteshwar Pujara had a delightful day at the office. Jharkhand came back in a spirited fashion by skittling Kerala for just 259 but were bowled out for only 89 thanks to the five-wicket haul from Jalaj Saxena. The required target was chased by the hosts for the loss of one wicket and were on board in the tournament.

The match between Rajasthan and Jammu Kashmir is moving towards a tame draw as the latter continued to bat slow on a flat track and took the lead of 102 runs. They ended the day on 432/6 as Robin Bist scored a scintillating ton and scored 113 runs. Andhra had the upper hand against Tamil Nadu by the end of the day and are most likely to take away points on the basis of the first innings lead. The home side still trails by 21 runs and currently, their score stands as 112/2. They need to move the game on the final day to have any chance of victory.

Baroda are in a spot of bother despite a fighting century from Yusuf Pathan which powered them to 302 in reply to the 551 posted by Madhya Pradesh. Following-on, they were 41/1 when umpires called stumps having lost the wicket of Aditya Waghmode in the final over. But the star of the day were Pathan brothers who fought for their team and added 188 together before being dismissed in quick succession. They need to put up another fight on the fourth day to save their team from the loss.

The three matches in the group D are on their way towards a draw as the teams are looking to extend their advantage in the first innings to gain the points. Services were bowled out for 359 and conceded a lead of 193 runs against Bengal. While Punjab also displayed their batting prowess and ended their day on 484/6 against Himachal Pradesh who have amassed 729, Goa is still behind by 235 runs in their first essay in reply to 458 runs that Chattisgarh posted. Hyderabad v Maharashtra couldn’t get underway on the third day as well.

Brief Scores

Group A

Delhi v Assam

Assam 258/10 (Swarupam Purkayastha 66; Ishant Sharma 5/38) & 60/3 (N Saini 2/13)

Delhi 435/4 (Gautam Gambhir 137; Abu Nechin 7/68)

UP v Railways: Railways won by 21 runs

Railways 182/10 (Ashish Yadav 53*; Ankit Rajpoot 3/30) & 161/10 (A Ghosh 57; A Rajpoot 4/34)

Uttar Pradesh 250/10 (Akshdeep Nath 75; Avinash Yadav 3/86) & 72/10 (S Raina 29; Avinash Yadav 4/26)

Group B

Haryana v Saurashtra: Saurashtra won by an innings and 31 runs

Saurashtra 278/10 (Prerak Mankad 58; Ashish Hooda 6/61)

Haryana 107/10 (Rahul Tewatia 23; Shaurya Sanandia 4/44) & 140/10 (C Bishnoi 56; J Unadkat 3/55)

Kerala v Jharkhand: Kerala won by 9 wickets

Jharkhand 202/10 (Ishan Kishan 45; Jalaj Saxena 6/50) & 89/10 (S Tiwary 26*; J Saxena 5/27)

Kerala 259/10 (J Saxena 54*; Sunny Gupta 6/94) &34/1 (A Karthik 27; S Quadri 1/15)

Rajasthan v Jammu and Kashmir

Rajasthan 330/10  (Robin Bist 113; Mohammed Mudhasir 5/81)

Jammu and Kashmir 432/6 (Ahmed Bandy 102; Tanveer-Ul-Haq 2/41)

Group C

Andhra v Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu 176/10 (Baba Aparajith 51; Bhargav Bhatt 4/52) & 112/2 (A Mukund 54*; Y Prithviraj 1/25

Andhra 309/10 (Bodapati Sumanth 109; R Ashwin 4/71)

Madhya Pradesh v Baroda

Madhya Pradesh 551/8 decl.  (Shubham Sharma 196; Swapnil Singh 3/136)

Baroda 302/10 (Y Pathan 111; I Pandey 2/44) & 41/1 (A Waghmode 31; A Khan 1/7)

Odisha v Tripura

Tripura 6/0

Group D

Services v Bengal

Bengal 552/9 decl. (Sudip Chatterjee 115; Sachidanand Pandey 4/108) & 77/0 (A Raman 40*)

Services 359/10 (Navneet Singh 121; A Gani 5/109)

Himachal Pradesh v Punjab

Himachal Pradesh 729/8 decl. (Prashant Chopra 338; Sandeep Sharma 4/149)

Punjab 484/6 (Abhishek G 129*; Gurvinder Singh 5/118)

Goa v Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh 458/10 (Manoj Singh 125; Darshan Wagha Misal 5/79)

Goa 223/4 (S Amonkar 79; S Ruikar 1/50)