A summary of Tuesday's action in the Ranji Trophy group stage matches.
Jaydev Unadkat, fresh from a fine bowling performance in the second Test against Bangladesh at Mirpur, returned to the Ranji grind and made a smashing impact, grabbing a hat-trick in the first over to leave Saurashtra's Group B opponents Delhi in a disarray on Tuesday.
Delhi, who lost seven wickets for just 10 runs, however, did not face ignominy of posting the lowest first-class score of 6 by a team called 'The B's' against England in an official match held in 1810.
Courtesy young Hrithik Shokeen (68), they finished with 133 after which Saurashtra scored 184 in just 46 overs as the visitors decided to play with two specialist bowlers.
Unadkat took wickets off the third, fourth and fifth deliveries to achieve the distinction of becoming the only player to take a first-over hat-trick in Ranji Trophy's 88-year-old history.
The previous quickest Ranji hat-trick, a split one, is in the name of Karnataka's Vinay Kumar, who achieved the feat over two overs -- first and third.
Unadkat's hat-trick victims included opener Dhruv Shorey, Vaibhav Rawal and young Delhi captain Yash Dhull, all of whom departed for duck.
Sources close to the Delhi team management in fact were wondering why, on a pitch that had moisture, a rookie like Ayush Badoni was sent to open on his debut.
Badoni, Rawal and even Dhull did not have the wherewithal to face Unadkat on a lightly damp wicket and they had no clue which one was leaving them, which one came back in and the trademark one which skids straight after pitching.
By the time he was done with his second over, the 31-year-old Unadkat had added two more scalps to accomplish his 21st five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.
Unadkat continued to wreak havoc, finishing with career-best figures of 8 for 39 in his 12 overs on Tuesday.
Delhi, missing quite a few regular bowlers in their playing eleven due to injuries, found themselves staring at an uphill task after being bundled out for 133. Their toothless attack was laid bare by Saurashtra opener Harvik Desai, whose unbeaten 104 off just 124 deliveries guided the hosts to 184 for 1 -- a 51-run lead -- at stumps.
Earlier, Unadkat, whose India career got a fresh lease of life almost 12 years after he played his opening Test, pulverised the Delhi batting, reducing them to five for six wickets in his opening two overs.
He accounted for Jonty Sindh (4) and Lalit Yadav (4) in his second -- and the team's third -- over with Delhi staring at one of the worst batting display in recent years.
But late-order batter Hrithik Shokeen (68 not out) and Shivank Vashisht (38) took the score past 100.
Later, Saurashtra batter Harvik Desai traded in boundaries, smashing 15 fours as the home team raced to 184 in no time, with Jay Gohil's wicket being the only success the visitors had on Day 1.
Brief scores:
At Rajkot: Delhi 133 in 35 overs (Hrithik Shokeen 68 not out, Shivank Vashisht 38; Jaydev Unadkat 8/39) versus Saurashstra 184 for 1 in 46 overs (Harvik Desai 104 not out, Chirag Jani 44 not out).
At Vizianagaram: Andhra 135 (Abhishek Reddy 81; Ravi Teja 5/34, Kartikeya Kak 3/31) versus Hyderabad 79 for 3 in 30 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 35).
At Ambi: Assam 272 for 9 in 87 overs (Swarupam Purkayastha 65, Akash Sengupta 63 not out; Pradeep Dadhe 3/85) versus Maharashtra.
At Mumbai: Tamil Nadu 144 in 36.2 overs (Pradosh Ranjan Paul 55; Tushar Deshpande 5/37) vs Mumbai 183 for 6 in 41 overs (Prithvi Shaw 35, Ajinkya Rahane 42, Sarfaraz Khan 46 not out; Aswin Crist 3/32).
Easwaran scores fourth successive first-class hundred
Dehradun: India’s Test team's reserve opener Abhimanyu Easwaran continued his magnificent run in first-class cricket with a fourth consecutive hundred, which propelled Bengal to 269 for 3 against Uttarakhand on Day 1 of their Ranji Trophy Group A match.
His 141 not out is even more sweet as it came at his "home ground" Abhimanyu Cricket Academy Stadium, named after him and run by his father Ranganathan Parameswaran Easwaran.
Uttarakhand skipper Aditya Tare's decision to field didn't yield the desired result as Abhimanyu's 170-run stand with another in-form man, Sudip Gharami (90), for the second wicket laid the foundation for a good first-innings score.
Abhimanyu also added 84 for the opening wicket with all-rounder Sayan Sekhar Mondal (18).
On a picturesque open ground, Abhimanyu struck 12 boundaries and a six and remained in contention to be a part of the Indian squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
His sequence of scores in the last four first-class games read: 141, 157 (both vs Bangladesh A), 170 vs Nagaland and now 141 not out in the current match.
Brief Scores:
In Dehradun: Bengal 269/3 in 84.3 overs (Abhimanyu Easwaran 141 batting, Sudip Kr Gharami 90; Mayank Mishra 3/74) vs Uttarakhand.
In Cuttack: Nagaland 291/6 in 89 overs (Chetan Bisht 94, Shrikant Mundhe 66; Suryakant Pradhan 3/69) vs Odisha.
In Vadodara: Baroda 327/7 in 90 overs (Vishnu Solanki 164 batting; Kanwar Abhinay 3/49) vs HP.
In Lucknow: UP vs Haryana, no play.
Ashutosh Singh ton hoists Chhattisgarh against Karnataka
Bengaluru: An unbeaten century by Ashutosh Singh (118) and his massive partnership with Amandeep Khare (93) helped Chhattisgarh score 267 for 6 on Day 1 of their Ranji Trophy Group C match against Karnataka.
Sent in to bat by Karnataka captain Mayank Agarwal, the visiting team was reduced to 1 for 2 in the third over. While Vidwath Kaverappa (3/54) removed A G Tiwary (0), V Koushik got the other opener Avnish Singh out for a duck.
Captain Harpreet Singh Bhatia (34), who joined Ashutosh in the middle, began aggressively and hit six boundaries during his knock. He, however, fell to a catch by ‘keeper B R Sharath off V Vyshak's bowling.
Even as Karnataka looked to attack, the duo of Ashutosh and Khare blunted the bowling by standing firm. Mixing caution and aggression, the two added 210 runs in 391 balls to lead Chhattisgarh's fightback.
The Ashutosh-Khare partnership had taken the team past the 250-mark and looked good for more when Kaverappa got the latter to nick one to Sharath for his fourth catch of the day.
Kaverappa castled Sumit Ruikar (0) to make sure Karnataka ended the day well.
In Thiruvananthapuram, Rohan Prem hit an unbeaten 112 (238 balls, 14 fours, 1 six) to help Kerala end Day 1 on 247 for 5 against Goa.
In Jaipur, Rajasthan bundled out Jharkhand for 92 in 47 overs and finished the day at 101 for four. Pace bowlers Aniket Choudhary and Tanveer Ul-Haq picked up four wickets each to hasten Jharkhand's quick end.
Brief scores:
At Bengaluru: Chattisgarh 267 for 6 in 90 overs (Ashutosh Singh 118 batting (273 balls, 18X4, 1X6), Amandeep Khare 93, Harpreet Singh Bhatia 34, Vidwath Kaverappa 3/54) vs Karnataka.
At Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala 247 for 5 in 90 overs (Rohan Prem 112 batting (238 balls, 14X4, 6X1), Sachin Baby 46, Rahul P 31) vs Goa.
At Delhi: Pondicherry 216 all out in 62.4 overs (K B Arun Karthick 58, Paras K Dogra 38, D Rohit 31, Diwesh Pathania 3/39, P S Poonia 3/48) vs Services 64 for no loss in 15 overs (Rahul Singh Gahlaut 40 batting).
At Jaipur: Jharkhand 92 all out in 47 overs (Aryaman Sen 39, Aniket Choudhary 4/16, Tanveer Ul-Haq 4/42) vs Rajasthan 101 for 4 in 31 overs (Yash Kothari 52, Ashish Kumar 4/26).
Patidar ton rallies MP
Indore: Rajat Patidar's 121 helped defending champions Madhya Pradesh recover from a poor start and finish with 234 for 6 at stumps on Day 1 of their Ranji Trophy Group D match against Vidarbha.
Sent in to bat by Vidarbha captain Faiz Fazal, MP were in a spot of bother losing the two openers and Shubham Sharma within the first 10 overs.
While Yash Dubey (2) was trapped LBW by Yash R Thakur, fellow-opener Himanshu Mantri (7) fell in similar manner to medium-pacer Lalit Yadav.
Shubham Sharma (1) lasted only four balls, leaving the home team in trouble.
Patidar, one of the star performers in MP's Ranji Trophy triumph last season, rose to the occasion. In the company of skipper Aditya Shrivastava (34), he put on 74 runs to revive the innings.
The 202-ball partnership made sure that MP got back into the game. A century stand between Patidar, who was cautious to start with, and Saransh Jain (45 batting) ensured that Madhya Pradesh were on track to post a good total.
Vidarbha got a huge breakthrough in the 89th over when Patidar fell LBW to Lalit Yadav (2/37) after a splendid rearguard effort.
Meanwhile, in Valsad, Punjab rode on a ton by Nehal Wadhera to finish day one at 276 for seven against Gujarat while Mohammad Saif's unbeaten 161 powered Railways to 322 for 8 against Jammu & Kashmir at Surat.
Brief scores:
At Valsad: Punjab 276 for 7 in 90 overs (Nehal Wadhera 120 batting (234 balls, 16X4, 1X6), Prabhsimran Singh 43, Anmol Malhotra 41, Chintan Gaja 3/59) vs Gujarat.
At Indore: Madhya Pradesh 234 for 6 in 90 overs (Rajat Patidar 121, Saransh Jain 45 batting, Aditya Shrivastava 34) vs Vidarbha.
At Surat: Railways 322 for 8 in 85 overs (Mohammad Saif 161 batting (216 balls, 23X4), Vivek Singh 32, Abid Mushtaq 3/76) vs J&K.
At Agartala: Chandigarh 313 for 2 in 86 overs (Manan Vohra 124 batting (215 balls, 16X4), Kunal Mahajan 103 batting (142 balls, 14X4, 1X6) vs Tripura.
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