Ranji Trophy 2019-20: Round 1, Day 1- Round-Up

The 2019-20 edition of India’s premier First-Class competition- Ranji Trophy- finally kickstarted on Monday with four-day games being played across the length and breadth of the country. Depending champions Vidarbha kicked off their title defense in a typical manner against Andhra.

Bowling first, Vidharba’s charge was spearheaded by the fast bowling duo of Rajneesh Gurbani (3-72) and Yash Thakur (2-44), who proceeded to land three crucial blows on the Andhra team. Captain Hanuma Vihari led from the front and scored a 155-ball 83 but Akshay Sarwate (4-50) was too hot to handle for Andhra’s middle-order and were eventually bowled out for 211. Faiz Fazal and Sanjay Raghunath safely negotiated the 12 overs and ensured Vidarbha went to stumps at 0-26.

Ajinkya Rahane’s 79 and substantial contributions from the likes of Shams Mulani (56 not out) and Shardul Thakur, who scored a whirlwind 63-ball 64 meant that Mumbai consolidated their position at a dominant 8-360 against Baroda. Bhargav Bhatt (3-110) was the pick of the bowlers for Baroda.

All-round Rex Singh (8-22 & 58*) pulls off a sensational all-round heist

In another Elite Group A& B encounter, Devdutt Padikkal continued his imperious run-of-form and scored a patient 78, as he along with half-centuries from Pawan Deshpande (65) took Karnataka to 6-259 against Tamil Nadu on day 1.

In what turned out to be a nightmarish day for batsmen, 17 wickets fell in last years’ runners-up Saurashtra’s opening encounter against Himachal Pradesh. Himachal Pradesh batted first and thanks to three-wicket-haul from each of Jaydev Unadkat (3-31), Chirag Jani (3-26) and Prerak Mankad (3-13) could only muster 120 runs in 42.3 overs.

However, it didn’t turn out hunky-dory for Saurashtra as none of their batsmen barring Snell Patel (42) and Arpit Vasvada (16) could register double-digit scores as they huffed and puffed their way to 7-93 at stumps. Vaibhav Arora and Pankaj Jaiswal- both of whom claimed three wickets each- were the wrecker-in-chief for Himachal Pradesh.

But, the highlight of the day came via Rex Singh in a plate encounter between Manipur and Mizoram. Singh (8-22) ran through Mizoram batting line-up to bowl them out for 65. He wasn’t done though! The left-arm fast bowler scored a whirlwind 58 off 66 balls and made sure he stayed unbeaten as Manipur finished the day at 7-255.

Brief Scores

Elite Group A & B

Hyderabad vs Gujarat

Hyderabad first innings: 233 all-out in 88 overs (Kolla Sumanth 69*, Chama V Milind 47; Piyush Chawla 3-61, Chintan Gaja 2-24)

Kerala vs Delhi

Kerala first innings: 3-276 in 89.1 overs (Ponnam Rahul 97, Robin Uthappa 102; Pradeep Sangwan 1-31, Vikas Mishra 1-45)

Rajasthan vs Punjab

Rajasthan first innings: 9-256 in 79 overs (Mahipal Lamror 60, Ashok Menaria 60, Salman Khan 53; Siddarth Kaul 3-68, Sanvir Singh 2-39, Baltej Singh 2-54)

Andhra vs Vidarbha

Andhra first innings: 211 all-out in 74 overs (Hanuma Vihari 83, Srikar Bharat 22; Aditya Sarwatw 4-50, Rajneesh Gurbani 3-72)

Vidarbha first innings: 0-26 in 12 overs (Faiz Fazal 11*, Sanjay Raghunath 14*)

Himachal Pradesh vs Saurashtra

Himachal Pradesh first innings: 120 all out in 37 overs (Prashant Chopra 33, Sumeet Verma 22; Jaydev Unadkat 3-31, Prerak Mankad 3-13)

Saurashtra first innings: 7-93 in 28 overs (Snell Patel 42, Arpit Vasavada 16; Vaibhav Arora 3-20, Pankaj Jaiswal 3-29)

Tamil Nadu vs Karnataka

Karnataka first innings: 6-259 in 94 overs (Devdutt Padikkal 78, Pavan Deshpande 65; Manimaran Siddharth 2-33, Krishnamorthy Vignesh 1-29)

Uttar Pradesh vs Railways

Railways first innings: 8-244 in 84.2 overs (Dinesh Mor 89*, Navneet Virk 58; Yash Dayal 3-47, Shivam Mavi 2-64)

Baroda vs Mumbai

Mumbai first innings: 8-362 in 90 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 79, Shardul Thakur 64, Shams Mulani 56; Bhargav Bhatt 3-110, Yusuf Pathan 2-26)

Elite Group C

Assam vs Services

Services first innings: 124 all out in 52.1 overs (Vikas Hathwala 34, Ravi Chauhan 32; Anup Das 4-39, Mukhtar Hussain 3-45)

Assam first innings: 3-81 in 30 overs (Rishav Das 29, Gokul Sharma 32*, Riyan Parag 13*; Diwesh Pathania 2-21)

Tripura vs Jharkhand

Tripura first innings: 8-263 in 77 overs (Milind Kumar 59, Harmeet Singh 55*; Anukul Roy 2-35, Ashish Kumar 2-32)

Uttarakhand vs Jammu-Kashmir

Jammu & Kashmir first innings: 182 all out in 49.2 overs (Shubham Khajuria 47, Suryansh Raina 35; Rahil Shah 3-18, Sunny Raina 2-50)

Uttarakhand first innings: 7-64 in 25 overs (Tanmay Shrivastava 17, Dikshanshu Negi 16*; Mohammed Mudhasir 3-11, Ram Dayal 3-22)

Haryana vs Maharashtra

Haryana first innings: 3-279/in 84 overs (Shubham Rohilla 117*, Shivam Chauhan 117; Samad Fallah 1-42, Anupam Sanklecha 1-58)

Chattisgarh vs Odisha

Chattisgarh first innings: 134 all out in 52.2 overs (Ajay Jadav Mandal 47, Amandeep Khare 20; Rajesh Mohanty 6-47, Besant Mohanty 3-24)

Odisha first innings: 3-48 in 19 overs (Anurag Sarangi 14, Subhranshu Senapati 16; Puneet Datey 2-5, Pankaj Kumar Rao 1-28)

Plate Group

Nagaland vs Meghalaya

Meghalaya first innings: 9-268 in 90 overs (Puneet Bisht 125, Sanjay Yadav 61; Imliwati Lemtur 7-48)

Manipur vs Mizoram

Mizoram first innings: 65 all-out in 16 overs (Taruwar Kohli 34; Rex Singh 8-22, Bishworjit Konthoujam 2-18)

Manipur first innings: 7-255 in 71 overs (Chingangbam Singh 89, Rex Singh 58*; Bobby Zothansanga 4-75)

Goa vs Sikkim

Sikkim first innings: 136 all out in 58.2 overs (Lee Yong Lepcha 56, Faizan Khan 20; Lakshay Garg 3-23, Darshan Misal 2-12)

Goa first innings: 3-124 in 28 overs (Smit Patel 53, Amit Verma 34*; Iqbal Abdullah 1-17, Ishwar Choudhary 1-45)

Chandigarh vs Anurachal Pradesh

Anurachal Pradesh first innings: 147 all out in 44.2 overs (Techi Neri 45 Song Tacho 20; Shreshth Nirmohi 5-26, Bipul Sharma 2-21)

Chandigarh first innings: 1-236 in 38 overs (Arslan Khan 119*, Shivam Bhambri 105, Akhilesh Sahani 1-80)