Kerala post 525/9, Delhi in trouble
Skipper Sachin Baby grinded a listless Delhi attack to hit 155 as Kerala gained complete control, first by posting a mammoth 525 for 9 and then removing the two opposition openers, in Thumba, Kerala, on the second day of their Ranji Trophy group A campaign.
Left-hander Baby, carried on the good work done on the opening day by centurion Robin Uthappa and Ponnam Rahul (97), as his 274-ball knock had 13 hits to the fence.
His innings was the primary reason that Kerala went past the 500-run mark as a tired Delhi side lost both its openers -- Anuj Rawat cleaned by off-spinner Jalaj Saxena and Kunal Chandela (1) edging one to Mohammed Azharuddeen behind stumps off pacer Sandeep Warrier.
Skipper Dhruv Shorey and his deputy Nitish Rana were at the crease and the only other specialist batsman in the side is left-handed Jonty Sidhu.
Delhi will first look at a score of 376 to avoid follow-on and take it from thereon. However it looks an uphill task at the moment in the manner the match has panned out so far.
After looking pedestrian on opening day, Delhi bowling seemed to have found its mojo back for a brief period when Vishnu Vinod (5) and Azhar (15) were dismissed in quick succession reducing Kerala to 310 for 5.
Just when it seemed Delhi would do well to restrict the hosts under 375, Baby and Salman Nizar (77 off 144 balls) added 156 runs at a decent pace to gain the momentum.
Delhi's specialist -- debutant leg-break bowler Tejas Baroka (3/128 in 30 overs), offie Shivam Sharma (2/112 in 34 overs) and orthodox slow left-arm Vikas Mishra (1/107 in 34 overs) had the ignominy of conceding 100 runs each.
Baby had 13 hits to the fence while Nizar hit nine fours and two sixes.
Once Nizar was out, Baby shielded the tail beautifully as another 31 invaluable runs were added with Karaparambil Monish (9) which took the score closer to 500.
Baby, who scored his sixth first-class hundred, was the eighth batsman out, bowled by all-rounder Lalit Yadav (2/47 in 21 overs) trying to up the ante.
Once the ninth wicket fell, Baby decided to declare, rightfully denying Delhi's shoddy bowling attack of getting the opposition all-out.
Summarised Scores:
At Thumba: Kerala 1st Innings 525/9 decl (Sachin Baby 155 off 274 balls, Robin Uthappa 102 off 221 balls, Ponnam Rahul 97 off 174, Salman Nizar 77 off 144 balls, Tejas Baroka 3/128, Shivam Sharma 2/112, Vikas Mishra 1/107 in 34 overs). Delhi 1st Innings 23/2.
At Hyderabad: Hyderabad 1st Innings 233. Gujarat 1st Innings 295/9 (Manprit Juneja 94, Rujul Bhatt 65, Mehidy Hassan 4/78).
At Vijaywada: Andhra 1st Innings 211 all out. Vidarbha 268/4 (Ganesh Satish 113 batting, Mohit Kale 82, Wasim Jaffer 0, Cheepurapalli Stephen 3/76 in 26 overs).
At Jaipur: Rajasthan 1st Innings 257 (Ashok Menaria 60, Salman Khan 53, Siddarth Kaul 4/68). Punjab 1st Innings 290/6 (Mandeep Singh 122, Gurkeerat Singh 68, Anmol Malhotra 68 batting, Khaleel Ahmed 0/52 in 18 overs). PTI KHS KHS
Haryana gain upperhand against Maharashtra
Hosts Haryana took control of its Ranji Trophy Group 'C' encounter against Maharashtra in Rohtak, reducing its opponent to 88 for 4 after making 401 in the first innings.
Resuming at 279 for 3 on the back of tons by opener Shubham Rohilla and middle-order batsman Shivam Chauhan, Haryana added 122 runs more even as the visiting bowlers stuck to their task and picked up wickets at regular intervals.
Rohilla moved from 105 to 142 but could not inspire his team to a bigger score. He was bowled by medium pacer Anupam Sanklecha (4 for 82), who had best figures for Maharashtra.
Sumit Kumar, who made 40 (86 balls, 3 fours, 1 six) ensured that the home side went past 400 as the lower order could not get going.
Rohilla (142, 285 balls, 17 fours) and Chauhan (117) had added 221 runs for the third wicket on Monday to resurrect Haryana's first innings after they were reduced to 24 for 2 in the 8th over.
While medium-pacer Sanklecha took four wickets, left-arm spinner Satyajeet Bachhav finished with three wickets. When Maharashtra batted, Ashish Hooda (1 for 17) dealt a huge blow by having the in-form Ruturaj Gaikwad (7) caught by Ankit Kumar with the score on 26.
Swapnil Gugale (21) looked in good touch, before being dismissed by Tinu Kundu, who also went on scalp Rahul Tripathi (8).
The Haryana skipper Harshal Patel had earlier got Chirag Khurana (17) leg-before to ensure that the team gained control of the proceedings with Maharasthra trailing by 313 runs with six wickets in hand.
Brief Scores:
Haryana 1st innings: 401 all out in 124.2 overs (Shivam Chauhan 117, Shubham Rohilla 142, AA Sanklecha 4/83, SS Bachhav 3/76) vs Maharashtra 88 for 4 in 44 overs (Naushad Shaik 23 batting)
At Agartala: Tripura 1st innings: 289 all out in 81.2 overs (Milind Kumar 59; Harmeet Singh 56, Pratyush Singh 40; Ashish Kumar 3/40, Ajay Yadav 3/61) vs
Jharkhand 1st innings: 136 all out in 43 overs (Virat Singh 47, Vivek Tiwari 30; Rana Dutta 4/42, AK Sarkar 3/43) and 91 for 2 in 20 overs (Md Nazim 40).
At Guwahati: Services 1st innings: 124 all out in 52.1 overs (VS Hathwala 34; AK Das 4/39) and 130 for 4 in 45 overs (Mumtaz Qadir 39, Rajat Paliwal 36 batting) vs Assam 1st innings: 162 all out in 64.2 overs (Riyan Parag 66, Gokul Sharma 32; Diwesh Pathania 5/58, Shadab Nazar 3/44).
At Dehradun: Jammu and Kashmir 1st innings: 182 all out 49.2 overs (SP Khajuria 47; RS Shah 3/18) and 304 all out in 65.4 overs (Fazil Rashid 73, Abdul Samad 60, Ram Dayal 41) vs Uttarakhand 1st innings: 84 all out in 31 overs (D Negi 24 not out; M Mudhasir 5/13, Ram Dayal 4/28) and 18 for 3 in 9 overs.
At Raipur: Chhattisgarh 1st innings: 134 all out in 52.2 overs (AJ Mandal 47; Rajesh Mohanty 6/47) and 45 for 1 in 17 overs (Ashtosh Singh 26 batting) vs Odisha 1st innings: 215 for 9 in 76.4 overs (Sujit Lenka 56, Biplab Samantray 30; Puneet Datey 4/58).
Mulani shines as Mumbai on verge of taking innings lead
Young Mumbai all-rounder Shams Mulani shone with both the bat and ball, even as the domestic giants are on the cusp of getting a first-innings lead in their opening Ranji Trophy game in Vadodara.
Mulani (89) heroics with the bat helped Mumbai post a decent 431 on the board after opting to bat on Monday.
Later, he grabbed a fifer to reduce Baroda to 301/9, giving hopes to his team of securing the crucial first innings lead.
For Baroda, opener Kedar Devdhar struck an unbeaten 154 but was devoid of partners as slow left-arm spinner Mulani spun his web around the opposition batsmen.
Earlier, resuming on their overnight score of 362/8, Mumbai added 69 runs to their tally, as their innings folded up at 431, thanks to Mulani.
Mulani, who was unbeaten on 56, added 33 runs to his score and eventually fell at 89.
It will be an uphill task for Baroda if they want to go past Mumbai's first innings total.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai 431 all out (Shams Mulani 89, Ajinkya Rahane 79, Yusuf Pathan 3-26, Bhargav Bhatt 3-125) versus Baroda 301/9 (Kedar Devdhar 154 not out, V P Solanki 48, Shams Mulani 5-99). Baroda trail by 130 runs.
At Dharamshala: Himachal Pradesh 120 and 182 (Ankush Bains 74, Ravi Dhawan 53; Jaydev Unadkat 6-51) versus Saurashtra 141 (Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 47, Snell Patel 42; Vaibhav Arora 6-48) and 96/3 (Harvik Desai 46, Snell Patel 15; Vaibhav Arora 2-29). Saurashtra need 66 runs to win.
At Dindigul: Karnataka 336 all out (Devdutt Padikkal 78, Pavan Deshpande 65; R Ashwin 4-79) versus Tamil Nadu 165/4 (Abhinav Mukund 47, Baba Aparajith 37; K Gowtham 3-61). Tamil Nadu trail by 171 runs.
At Meerut: Railways 253 and 58/5 (Nitin Bhille 18, Shivam Mavi 3-9, Yash Dayal 2-19) versus Uttar Pradesh 175 (Almas Shaukat 92 not out, Saurabh Kumar 21; Amit Verma 4-52, Himanshu Sangwan 4-71). Railways lead by 136 runs.
Manipur on cusp of big victory against Mizoram as Rex ends with 10-wkt haul
Manipur are closing in on a big victory against Mizoram in their Ranji Trophy Plate Group encounter needing only 67 runs to win with two days to go.
After talented left-arm seamer Rajkumar Rex Singh's superb 8 for 22 decimated Mizoram for 65 in the first innings, Manipur managed 289 in their first essay with a big lead of 224 runs. Rex after a good bowling effort got 65 along with opener Bonny Singh, who contributed 89.
In the second innings, Mizoram gave a better account of themselves scoring 290 with former Karnataka player KB Pawan scoring 81. Rex completed a match-haul of 10 wickets with 2 for 49 in the second innings.
Brief Scores
In Kolkata: Mizoram 65 and 290 (KB Pawan 81, Rex Singh 2/49). Manipur 289 (Bonny Singh 89, Rex Singh 65, B Zothansanga 5/92). Mizoram lead by 66 runs.
In Sovima: Meghalaya 285 (Puneet Bisht 125) & 89/9 (I Lemtur 6/32). Nagaland 136 (Stuart Binny 33, R Sanjay Yadav 9/52 in 22 overs)
In Chandigarh: Arunachal Pradesh 147 and 164/6 (Gurinder Singh 3/42). Chandigarh 503/2 decl (Arslan Khan 233, Manan Vohra 124, Shivam Bhambri 105).
In Porvorim: Sikkim 136 and 22/2. Goa 436/6 decl (Snehal Kauthankar 134, Amit Verma 113).
