Ranji Trophy 2017/18, Semifinals: Day 1 Round up

Another exciting edition of Ranji Trophy has reached the penultimate stage of the tournament, with all four teams playing their hearts out. Eventually, Karnataka and Delhi finished with the upper hand, but not by a big margin. The Eden Gardens track seems to be doing a lot of things right from the outset and the scorecard reflects on this fact.

After winning the toss, Vidarbha‘s skipper Faiz Fazal opted to bat first. Only in the ninth over of the day, Fazal was caught plumb in front of the stumps by his opposite number Vinay Kumar and wickets kept falling at regular intervals.Veteran Wasim Jaffer tried hanging on, but could only manage an 85-ball 39.

After losing five wickets for a paltry 108 runs, it seemed like the tail would vanish soon. But Aditya Sarwate played a gem of a knock coming in at number 7. He was on the front foot right from the outset and didn’t back off when there was a scoring opportunity. He didn’t receive good support at the other end though, as Vidarbha got bowled out for 185 runs. Abhimanyu Mithun picked up five wickets for Karnataka.

All the elation of bowling their opponents off cheaply didn’t last long for the south Indian side. Rajneesh Gurbani picked up a brace in no time and left Vinay Kumar’s side in splits. Umesh Yadav picked up the priceless scalp of Mayank Agarwal, who has been in devastating nick this season. Karun Nair and CM Gautam are currently at the crease with Karnataka’s scoreboard reading 36/3 in 14 overs.

Four wickets in the final session keeps Delhi in the driver’s seat

Till the second session in the game between Delhi and Bengal in Pune, both teams were battling it out hard and it was hard to choose a better side. But as the day came to a close, Delhi’s young captain Rishabh Pant had a bigger smile on his face when compared to Manoj Tiwary.

Batting first, Abhishek Raman and Sudip Chatterjee chipped in with crucial contributions in the top three. Although Raman was dismissed for 36, Sudip kept marching forward alongside Writtick Chatterjee. The duo added 78 runs for the third wicket and kept their side ahead of the game, before Vikas Tokas broke the partnership.

Manoj Tiwary got off to a good start as well, but the captain failed to convert his start to a big score. He added 68 runs for the fourth wicket and eventually got out to Manan Sharma. Almost immediately, Sudip Chatterjee missed out on a well-deserved hundred and most importantly for the side, two well-set batters were dismissed.

Anustup Majumdar was another one of those batsmen on the day who got off to a brilliant start, but couldn’t have a significant impact. Navdeep Saini cleaned up his stumps and almost immediately, Kulwant Khejroliya got another wicket in the final session to shift the momentum towards Delhi. Bengal finished at 269/7 in 87 overs.

In both the semifinals played on the day, bad light reduced a few overs. In the Karnataka-Vidarbha game in Kolkata, almost 13 overs went to bin whilst the other game saw 87 overs of play, 3 less than the usual.

Brief Scores

Delhi v Bengal, 1st Semifinal

Bengal first innings: 269/7 in 87 overs (Sudip Chatterjee 83, Writtick Chatterjee 47; Manan Sharma 2/37)

Karnataka v Vidarbha, 2nd Semifinal

Vidharbha first innings: 185/10 in 61.4 overs (Aditya Sarwate 47, Wasim Jaffer 39; Abhimanyu Mithun 5/45)

Karnataka first innings: 36/3 in 14 overs (Rajneesh Gurbani 2/9)