Ranji roundup: Jaffer first batsman to go past 11,000 runs

Veteran Wasim Jaffer became the first batsman to reach the landmark of 11,000 runs in Ranji Trophy during Day 2 of Nagpur's Group A match against Baroda on Wednesday.

Belagavi: Arch-rivals Karnataka and Mumbai were engaged in a close fight for the first innings honours in their Group A Ranji Trophy game on Wednesday.

Mumbai did well to restrict the hosts to 400 all out, built mainly around rookie Krishnamurthy Siddharth's anchoring 161 after Karnataka resumed at their overnight 263 for four.

Shivam Dubey ended up with a highly creditable seven-wicket haul for 63 runs.

In reply, Mumbai made 99 for 2 by stumps on day two, still 301 runs in arrears, with Jay Bista cracking an unbeaten 69.

Mumbai lost opener Akhil Herwadkar (5) early but his partner Bista hit 11 fours in his 111-ball knock.

In Nagpur, veteran Wasim Jaffer (153), skipper Faiz Fazal (151) and wicket-keeper batsman Akshay Wadkar (102 not out) steered reigning champions Vidarbha to a massive 529 for six declared against Baroda who replied with 41 for no loss.

Jaffer, 41, brought up the landmark of 11,000 runs in Ranji Trophy when he took his score to 97 before going on to complete his 54th first class century.

In Raipur, Chhattisgarh managed to restrict Railways to 132 for 4 after putting on 300 in their first innings.

Brief Scores:

At Belagavi: Karnataka 400 all out (Siddharth K V 161, Shreyas Gopal 48, Shivam Dube 7-53) vs Mumbai 99/2 (Jay Bista 69 not out, Abhimanyu Mithun 1-22).

At Raipur: Chhattisgarh 300 all out (Harpreet Singh Bhatia 79, Amandeep Khare 54, Manjeet Chaudhary 4-85) vs Railways 132/4 (Pratham Singh 56 not out, Arindam Ghosh 34,
Pankaj Rao 2-27).

At Nadiad: Gujarat 324 all out (R B Kalaria 91 not out, Manprit Juneja 66, Chetan Sakariya 5-83) vs Saurashtra 221/3 (H Desai 79 not out, Snell Patel 62).

At Nagpur: Vidarbha 529/6 Declared (Wasim Jaffer 153, Faiz Fazal 151, Akshay Wadkar 102 not out; Lukman Meriwala 2-79) vs Baroda 41/0.

Sublime ton from Saxena puts Kerala on top against Bengal

Kolkata: Opener Jalaj Saxena hit a second successive century of the season to put Kerala in the driver's seat against Bengal in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday.

Resuming on his overnight score of 14 with the team's score at 35 for one, Saxena stood tall in a glittering 143 from 190 balls as Kerala surpassed Bengal's first innings score of 147 in the opening session before notching up a sizeable 291 in 83 overs.

In their second essay, Bengal lost opener Koushik Ghosh (1) cheaply to be five for one in 2.2 overs -- still needing 139 runs to avoid a first innings defeat with two day's play remaining.

"It's very satisfying to see where we are standing right now, despite having started off as underdogs," Saxena said.

Saxena not only held the Kerala innings together en route to his 14th first class century, but counter-attacked Mohammed Shami with both his sixes coming against the Australia-bound India pacer.

The BCCI had cleared Shami, India's highest wicket-taker in Tests so far this year, to play the match subject to him bowling not more than 15-17 overs in an innings.

But the star pacer ended up bowling 26 overs returning with 3/100 that aptly summed up Bengal's misery after they opted for a green top in their effort to register the season's first win.

Fresh from his match-winning 133 and nine-wicket match haul against Andhra, Saxena looked full of optimism in his third season for Kerala.

The 31-year-old stood in three 50-plus partnerships, including a 119-run stand with Vasudevan Jagadeesh for the sixth wicket that took the team past 200 in the second session.

Earlier on a hazy morning, Shami started off with a bouncer to Saxena and followed it up with another short delivery.

The Kerala opener stayed calm and made his intentions clear playing an upper cut over backward point boundary as the ball had to be replaced.

In the next over, Saxena launched Shami over point boundary for his second six as Kerala got off to an attacking start. He added quick 52 runs for the second wicket with left-hander Rohan Prem.
 
Ashok Dinda gave the breakthrough in the fourth over of the day with a bouncer to dismiss Prem, who went for a pull only to get a faint edge behind the stumps.
 
The only time Saxena looked in a bit of worry was on 29 when Dinda's huge appeal for a caught behind was turned down.
 
Shami was introduced again in the 51st over with Saxena in 90s but the latter continued to play freely and completed his century from 143 balls in the 56th over.
 
Ishan Porel (4/69) finally broke the partnership dismissing Jagadeesh and Saxena on either side of the tea break.

But Bengal bowlers still struggled to wrap up the issue with Akshay Chandran playing a rearguard knock and remained unbeaten on 32.

Brief Scores:

Bengal: 147 and 5/1 in 2.2 overs vs Kerala: 291 in 83 overs (Jalaj Saxena 143, Ishan Porel 4/69, Mohammed Shami 3/100, Ashok Dinda 2/41).

TN gain upperhand vs Andhra

Ongole: Tamil Nadu made 122 for three in 50 overs at stumps on the second day after bowling out Andhra for 216 in the first innings of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'B' match.

Only 140 runs were scored from around 60 overs of play possible before bad light ended proceedings on the day.

Resuming at 198 for eight, Andhra's innings ended for the addition of 18 runs. Girinath Reddy, overnight 69, scored 86.

Medium-pacer M Mohammed (4/70) and left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore (3/29) were the main wicket-takers.

Tamil Nadu was provided a solid start by the experienced Abhinav Mukund and M Kaushik Gandhi as the duo added 70 runs for the first wicket.

Mukund, who scored a ton in the previous match against Hyderabad, stroked some fluent boundaries, before being the first man to go, leg-before to Ayyappa for 31.

Kaushik Gandhi (38) went 10 runs later, edging Girinath Reddy to wicketkeeper Siva Charan Singh.

Brief scores:

At Ongole: Andhra 216 all out in 89.5 overs (Girinath Reddy 86 not out, M Mohammed 4 for 70) vs Tamil Nadu 122 for 3 in 50 overs (M Kaushik Gandhi 38).

At Indore: Punjab 293 all out in 84.4 overs (Jiwanjot Singh 124, Gurkeerat Mann 66, Kuldeep Sen 5 for 62) vs Madhya Pradesh 186 for 2 in 76 overs (Rajat Patidar 63 not out).

At Hyderabad: Hyderabad 460 all out in 170.3 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 120, T Ravi Teja 115 not out, Himalay Agarwal 66) vs Delhi 21 for no loss in 7 overs.

Rajasthan fight back against Jharkhand

Ranchi: Rajasthan conceded the first innings lead to Jharkhand but remained in the hunt for victory in their Elite Group C Ranji Trophy match.

Rajasthan, who were bundled out for a paltry 100 in the first essay, performed better in the second to make 127 for 4 at stumps on day 2, after skittling out Jharkhand for 152.

Robin Bist made 45 after the other top-three Rajasthan batsmen failed.

Earlier, Jharkhand resumed the second day at 92 for 5 and overhauled Rajasthan's score with Ishan Jaggi making a fighting 79 in 131 balls with 10 fours.

Brief Scores:

At Ranchi: Rajasthan 100 all out and 127/4 (Robin Bist 45) vs Jharkhand 152 (Ishank Jaggi 79; T M Haq 6-52)

At Guwahati: Assam 121 all out and 60/4 (Rajesh Mohanty 3-25) vs Odisha 240 (Anurag Sarangi 77, Biplab Samantaray 61; Ranjeet Mali 6-80).

At Rohtak: Haryana 276 all out (Himanshu Rana 86, Nitin Saini 64; Krishna Das 6-75) v Goa 177 all out (Sagun Kamat 68; Poonish Mehta 4-21).

At Srinagar: Tripura 124 and 11/0 v Jammu and Kashmir 442 all out (Ahmed Bandy 136, Irfan Pathan 85; Harmeet Singh 5-91).

At New Delhi (Palam): Services 260 all out (Devender Lohchab 75, Shivam Mavi 4-44) v Uttar Pradesh 265-5 (Priyam Garg 88).