A round-up of Day 1 of the Ranji Trophy matches played on Monday.
Shaw, Rahane boost Mumbai on Day 1
Test specialist Ajinkya Ranahe and young opener Prithvi Shaw struck gritty fifties as Mumbai ended day one of their Ranji Trophy lung opener against Baroda at 362/8 in Vadodara on Monday.
While Rahane's patient 79 off 145 balls pulled Mumbai out of the rubble, bowlers Shardul Thakur (64) and Shams Mulani (56 not out) contributed with the bat slamming half-centuries as they ensured Mumbai ended the first day with a decent score on the board.
This was Shaw's first game in first class cricket after serving a eight-month ban for doping, and he made optimum use of the opportunity.
Shaw, who is eyeing the third opener's slot in Tests, made a quick 66 off 62 balls.
After opting to bat, openers Jay Bista (18) and Shaw conjured a 74-run stand for the first wicket. After Bista fell, all-rounder Shubham Ranjane was promoted up the order at number three, but he fell to convert his start and was dismissed for 36 off 59 balls.
Shaw, who was going all guns blazing, was certainly poised for a bigger score. He smashed 11 fours and one six as he tore into the Baroda attack.
But right-arm pacer Abhimanyu Rajput cut short Shaw's stay and cleaned him up in the 18th over, with Mumbai at 95-2.
Then in walked Rahane, who in the past has rescued India on numerous occasions. The India Test vice-captain first added 57 runs with Ranjane to steady Mumbai's ship. However, Baroda pegged back Mumbai by removing two quick wickets -- Ranjane and skipper Suryakumar Yadav (0), who had a rare failure. Even the experienced Aditya Tare fell cheaply as Mumbai were in a spot of bother 182-5.
Then Rahane, who hammered 10 boundaries, showed his mettle and held one end. He first got support from Akash Parkar (12), and later from Mulani.
After his dismissal, Mulani and Shardul took the game away from Baroda with their half-centuries. Mulani hit seven fours and two sixes in his unbeaten knock, while Thakur smashed 11 fours and a six.
Mulani and Shashank Attarde (5 not out) will resume Mumbai's innings on Tuesday. For Baroda, Bhargav Bhatt grabbed three wickets but gave away 110 runs.
Brief Scores:
At Vadodara: Mumbai 362/8 (Ajinkya Rahane 79, Prithvi Shaw 66; Shardul Thakur 64; Bhargav Bhatt 3-110) vs Baroda.
At Dharamshala: Himachal Pradesh 120 all out (Prashant Chopra 33; Prerak Mankad 3-13, Chirag Jani 3-26) vs Saurashtra 93/7 (Snell Patel 42, Vaibhav Arora 3-20, Pankaj Jaiswal 3-29). Saurashtra trail by 27 runs.
At Meerut: Railways 244/8 (Dinesh Mor 89 not out, Navneet Virk 58; Yash Dayal 3-47) vs Uttar Pradesh.
Uthappa hits century as Delhi's spin ploy backfires
Delhi coach KP Bhaskar's ploy of using four-pronged spin attack backfired badly as Kerala comfortably reached 276 for 3 riding on a patient hundred from Robin Uthappa on the first day of their Ranji Trophy Group A encounter in Thumba, on Monday.
Uthappa, who has endured a slump in form during the past few seasons, scored 102 off 221 balls with seven fours and three sixes, adding 118 runs for the second wicket with opener Ponnam Rahul (97).
Rahul missed his ton by three runs but Uthappa completed his 22nd hundred before being dismissed in the final over of the day by comeback-man Pradeep Sangwan (1/31 in 9.1 overs). In the process, he also added 90 runs for the third wicket with skipper Sachin Baby (36 not out).
On a slow track, Kerala skipper Baby called correctly and his decision to bat was vindicated by the top-order, also aided by poor team selection from the Delhi team management.
With new captain Dhruv Shorey in charge, it is learnt that Bhaskar, who had a controversial exit after the 2017 season, is calling shots and it was his decision to have four spinners -- leg-spinner Tejas Baroka (1/62 in 19 overs), left-arm spinner Vikas Mishra (1/45 in 19 overs), along with the off-spin duo of Shivam Sharma (0/65 in 17 overs) and Lalit Yadav (0/17 in 9 overs) in the playing XI.
A fifth spinner -- part-timer Nitish Rana -- also bowled three overs with pacers Navdeep Saini (0/48 in 13 overs) and Sangwan only bowling 22.1 overs between them.
In fact, Sangwan, who has last played a first-class match three years back, looked rusty and bowled only two spells.
None of the spinners made an impression even though young Baroka, who made his debut after a consistent show at the Under-19 and Under-23 levels did show some spark.
He got his maiden first-class scalp removing the seasoned Jalaj Saxena (32) caught by Lalit.
However, off-spinner Shivam was a complete disappointment as he bowled a lot of loose deliveries while left-arm spinner Mishra could hardly extract any turn.
Once he got some turn, Mishra was able to dismiss left-handed Rahul but overall could hardly make any impact.
With Kerala looking good for a comprehensive first innings score, poor team selection has already put Delhi on the backfoot.
Summarised Scores:
At Thumba: Kerala 276/3 (Robin Uthappa 102 off 221 balls, Ponnam Rahul 97 off 174 balls, Pradeep Sangwan 1/31 in 9.1 overs, Tejas Baroka 1/62 in 19 overs, Vikas Mishra 1/45 in 19 overs) vs Delhi
At Jaipur: Team Rajasthan 1st Innings 256/9 (Ashok Menaria 60, Mahipal Lomror 60, Siddarth Kaul 3/68) vs Punjab
At Vijaywada: Andhra 1st Innings 211 (Hanuma Vihari 83 off 155 balls, Aditya Sarwate 4/50 in 18 overs) vs Vidarbha 1st Innings 26/0.
At Hyderabad: Hyderabad 1st Innings 233 in 88 overs (Kolla Sumanth 69, Piyush Chawla 3/61 in 16 overs).
Paddikal, Deshpande steady Karnataka
Half -centuries by in-form batsman Devdutt Padikkal (78) and Pavan Deshpande (65) helped Karnataka reach 259/6 on the opening day of their Elite Group B Ranji Trophy game against Tamil Nadu in Dindigul.
India opener Mayank Agarwal, however, failed to convert his start as he was dismissed on 43 off 78 balls.
For Tamil Nadu, ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin finished the day with figures of 1-68.
Opting to bat at the NPR College ground, Karnataka lost opener Dega Nischal (4) early.
Padikkal continued his golden run with the bat, stroking a fluent 78, hitting eight fours in his 182-ball knock, as he put on 67-run stand for the second wicket with Agarwal.
Following Agarwal's dismissal, Karnataka captain Karun Nair (8) also fell early as he was run out.
However, the two quick wickets did not deter Padikkal from playing his shots.
He found an able ally in Pawan Deshpande (65) as the duo pulled the side out of the rubble with their 116-run stand.
However, Tamil Nadu rallied removing both Paddikal and Deshpande in quick succession to leave Karnataka teetering at 222-5.
Karnataka all-rounder Shreyas Gopal (35 not out) steadied the ship as the first day's play finished on an even keel.
At Dindigul: Karnataka 259/6 (Devdutt Padikkal 78, Pavan Deshpande 65; M Siddharth 2-33, Baba Aparajith 1-24) vs Tamil Nadu.
Chauhan, Rohilla tons rally Haryana
Opener Shubham Rohilla and middle-order batsman Shivam Chauhan scored centuries as Haryana comfortably reached 279 for three against Maharashtra on the opening day of their Group C opener at the Ranji Trophy, in Rohtak, on Monday.
Rohilla and Chauhan added 221 runs for the third wicket to resurrect Haryana's first innings after they were reduced to 24 for 2 in the 8th over.
While Chauhan blasted two sixes and had 14 hits to the fence in his 208-ball 117, opener Rohilla slammed 15 boundaries in his 234-ball 117 not out.
Electing to bat, Haryana didn't make a good start as opener Ankit Kumar (14) was sent packing by Samad Fallah in the seventh over, new batsman Chaitanya Bishnoi (1) too quickly walked back to the pavillion when he was dismissed by Anupam Sanklecha in the next over.
Chauhan and Rohilla then took Haryana to 50-mark in 14.4 overs. The duo continued to keep the bowlers at bay and entered the lunck break with Haryana at 127/2 in 33.6 overs.
The duo matched each other with Chauhan completing his half-century in 63 balls, while Rohilla reached the landmark in 93 balls.
With the duo in full flow, Haryana were 208 for 2 in 63 overs during the tea break.
Chauhan reached his century off 181 balls, while after the break Rohilla completed his century, amassing 103 runs off 206 balls.
Haryana scored the 250-run mark in 77.5 overs before the stumps were drawn after in 83.6 overs.
Brief Scores:
Haryana 1st innings: 279 for 3 in 84 overs (Shivam Chauhan 117, Shubham Rohilla 117 not out; SM Fallah 1/42) vs Maharashtra.
Tripura 1st innings: 263 for 8 in 77 overs (Milind Kumar 59; Ashish Kumar 2/32) vs Jharkhand.
Services 1st innings: 124 allout in 52.1 overs (VS Hathwala 34; AK Das 4/39) vs Assam 1st innings: 81 for 3 in 30 overs (G Sharma 32; DG Pathania 2/21)
Jammu and Kashmir 1st innings: 182 allout 49.2 overs (SP Khajuria 47; RS Shah 3/18) vs Uttarakhand 1st innings: 64 for 7 in 25 overs (TM Srivastava 17; M Mudhasir 3/11)
Chhattisgarh 1st innings: 134 allout in 52.2 overs (AJ Mandal 47; Rajesh Mohanty 6/47) vs Odisha 1st innings: 48 for 3 in 19 overs (SP Senapati 16; PM Datey 2/5).
