Ranji Trophy 2017-18, Round 7 - Day 1 Review

The final round of the league phase of the ongoing Ranji Trophy season commenced on Thursday with some interesting qualification scenarios possible. In hindsight, there was a lot of contest on view in the games in which there was so much at stake. Gujarat, after being invited to bowl first, posted 262 runs for the loss of four wickets on the back of the half-centuries from three batsmen against Jharkhand in Ranchi.

Odisha was shot out for a paltry total of 147 courtesy the four-wicket haul from Chandrakant Sakure of Madhya Pradesh. In reply, MP started strongly as Rajat Patidar scored a half-century with the team’s score reading 96/1. Delhi piled on the runs against Hyderabad and finished the day on 336/5 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. Himmat Singh missed out on his century by mere 1 run but put his team in a comfortable position.

The match between Maharashtra and Assam saw 13 wickets falling on a day when the runs were also scored at a fast pace. The latter side was bowled out for 279 as the hosts ended the day on 64/3 with the opener Ruturaj Gaikwad going strong. Mayank Agarwal and Manish Pandey continued their rich vein of form and slammed centuries for Karnataka as they posted 355 runs for the loss of 6 wickets against Railways. The former once again missed out on a double-century as he was dismissed in the final over of the day on 173.

Saurashtra started their final league game on a positive note with an unbeaten ton from Avi Barot against Rajasthan and finished the day on 286/3. Haryana’s poor batting continued as they lost eight wickets at home ground and the score could only go past 200 somehow against Kerala. Swapnil Singh stood tall for Baroda as the other batsmen collapsed in front of some disciplined bowling from Tamil Nadu in a must-win game for both sides in Vadodara.

Mumbai got off to a perfect start in a  high-profile must-win encounter against Tripura as they bundled them out for just 195. Akash Parkar scalped a sensational five-fer as Dhawal Kulkarni supported him well with three wickets. But the hosts also lost 3 wickets in response as they finished on 77/3. Shubman Gill and Anmolpreet Singh notched up stupendous tons and carried on their good form for Punjab against the depleted Services bowling line-up. Both the youngsters are under the radar of selectors and these knocks only bode well for their future.

Himachal Pradesh scored 287 runs for the loss of six wickets in Nagpur against Vidarbha until the end of play on day 1. Shreevats Goswami replaced Wriddhiman Saha as the wicketkeeper and justified his place right away with 139 run knock as Bengal scored more than 300 runs against Goa. Even Anustup Majumdar slammed an unbeaten ton with the team looking good to post more runs on the board.

Brief Score:

Group A

Hyderabad v Delhi

Delhi 336/5 ( H Singh 99, L Yadav 62*, K Chandela 64)

Maharashtra v Assam

Assam 279/10 (S Roy 80, G Sharma 87; N Dhumal 5/94)

Mahrashtra 64/3 (R Gaikwad 41*; P Das 2/32

Railways v Karnataka

Karnataka 355/6 (M Agarwal 173, M Pandey 108)

Group B

Haryana v Kerala

Haryana 206/8 (R Paliwal 45; S Warrier 3/50)

Rajasthan v Saurashtra

Saurashtra 286/3 ( Avi Barot 128*)

Jharkhand v Gujarat

Gujarat 262/4 (S Gohel 64, M Juneja 51*, R Bhatt 51*)

Group C

Madhya Pradesh v Odisha

Odisha 147/10 ( S Mishra 60; C Sakure 4/42)

Madhya Pradesh 96/1 ( R Patidar 72*)

Tamil Nadu v Baroda

Baroda 254/8 (S Singh 94*; J Kousik 2/28)

Mumbai v Tripura

Tripura 195/10 (M Murasingh 43; A Parkar 5/32)

Mumbai 77/3 (J Bista 43*)

Group D

Punjab v Services

Punjab 395/2 (S Gill 129, A Singh 129*)

Vidarbha v Himachal Pradesh

Himachal Pradesh 287/6 ( S Verma 66; R Gurbani 3/90)

Bengal v Goa

Bengal 305/5 (S Goswami 139, A Majumdar 107*)