A round-up of Day 2 of the Ranji Trophy group matches played on Friday.
Rajkot: Cheteshwar Pujara missed out on a second successive double hundred but his 182 went a long way in Saurashtra piling up a mammoth 570 in their first innings against Gujarat on the second day of the Ranji Trophy.
Starting the day on 115 not out, Pujara added 69 runs for the fifth wicket with Jaydev Shah (46) and 53 runs for the sixth wicket with Prerak Mankad (62).
Pujara's 182 came off 313 balls with 24 boundaries before he finally bowled by left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai.
Prerak played a breezy knock striking seven fours and a six in 77 balls before Chirag Jani's unbeaten 46 took Saurashtra past the 550-run mark.
In reply, Gujarat were 45 for no loss at stumps on Day 2.
Group B Brief scores:
At Rajkot: Saurashtra 1st innings 570 (Cheteshwar Pujara 182, Snell Patel 156, Prerak Mankad 62, Siddharth Desai 4/154) vs Gujarat 45 for no loss.
At Rohtak: Haryana 223 (Harshal Patel 83, Aniket Chaudhary 3/37, Pankaj Singh 3/60) vs Rajasthan 74/7 (Amit Mishra 2/19).
At Jamshedpur: Jammu and Kashmir 376 (Puneet Bisht 115, Shubham Khajuria 101, Varun Aaron 4/54) vs Jharkhand 220/5 (Nazim Siddiqui 70, Anand Singh 68).
Ramaswamy's 182 puts Vidarbha on top
Kalyani: A career-best 182 by Sanjay Ramaswamy put Vidarbha in the driver's seat as Bengal trailed by 410 runs in their Ranji Trophy Group D fixture at the Bengal Cricket Academy ground.
Resuming his innings on 117 with Vidarbha at 285 for one, Ramaswamy got past his previous best of 161, scored in their season opener against Punjab. Along with Aditya Sarwate (89), Ramaswamy helped the visitors reach a mammoth 499 in their first innings.
Bengal replied shakily as they were 89 for three with skipper Manoj Tiwary (36) and Koushik Ghosh (1) unbeaten at stumps on day two, still 260 runs shy of avoiding the follow-on.
Abhimanyu Easwaran's lean patch continued as he was out for a duck in the fourth ball of the innings as Bengal lost their first wicket without a run on the board.
After a brief resistance, Bengal lost two wickets in quick succession with Sudeep Chatterjee (15) and Abhishek Raman (27) falling cheaply.
Earlier, Vidarbha lost their first wicket Wasim Jaffer (22) in the first over of the day, but Ramaswamy stayed calm to anchor the innings.
He got fine support from No. 7 batsman Sarwate, who showed grit to resume his innings on 60 after being hit hard on his helmet by a rising bouncer from debutant pacer Ishan Porel.
Batting on 60, Sarwate lost his balance and fell after being hit by a rising delivery in the post-lunch session.
He batted for the next three balls before he had to retire to the dressing room. To everyone's surprise, he resumed his innings and added 29 runs before being dismissed by Porel.
Group D Brief scores:
In Kalyani: Vidarbha 499 (Sanjay Ramaswamy 182, Faiz Fazal 142, Aditya Sarwate 89; Ishan Porel 4/139) vs Bengal 89/3 (Manoj Tiwary 36 not out).
In Dharamsala: Himachal Pradesh 175 vs Chhattisgarh 389/6 (Rishabh Tiwari 131, Amandeep Khare 78, Ashutosh Singh 54).
In Delhi: Services 263 (Vikas Yadav 84, Nakul Verma 64; Heramb Parab 3/37) vs Goa 150/6 (Sagun Kamat 50; Sachidanand Pandey 3/23).
TN in driver's seat against Odisha
Cuttack: Riding on centuries by Baba Aparajith and all-rounder Vijay Shankar Tamil Nadu piled up a mammoth 530 for eight declared in their first innings on the second day of their Group C Ranji Trophy match.
Resuming at overnight 292 for three, which was built on Murali Vijay's 140, Tamil Nadu consolidated their innings with Aparajith remaining unbeaten on 109 and Shankar scoring 100 runs despite losing Baba Indrajith early in the day for 46.
Aparajith, who joined Shankar, ensured that the team scored at a brisk pace as the duo added 177 runs.
Shankar, who struck nine fours and a six, fell after reaching his three-figure mark as he was dismissed by Biplab Samantaray.
Aparajith, who raised his second century of the season studded with nine boundaries and a six, played confidently and stepped up the tempo as the side looked for quick runs.
Young all-rounder Washington Sundar didn't last too long but he hit three boundaries before falling for 14 and V Yomahesh, who made a comeback to first-class cricket in the game against Mumbai, got out for a duck.
Aparajith and K Vignesh added 26 runs before the Tamil Nadu captain declared the innings.
In reply, Odisha openers Sandeep Pattanaik and Natraj Behera saw off the 13 overs, scoring 36 runs in the process.
Group C Brief scores:
At Cuttack: Tamil Nadu 530 for 8 dec (Murali Vijay 140, N Jagadeesan 88, Vijay Shankar 100, B Aparajith 109 not out) vs Odisha 36 for no loss.
At Agartala: Andhra 402 (D B Prashanth Kumar 133, G Hanuma Vihari 62, Ricky Bhui 74, A K Sarkar 5 for 68) vs Tripura 68 for 1.
At Mumbai: Mumbai 171 (Aditya Tare 50, Atit Sheth 5 for 50, Lukman Meriwala 5 for 52) vs Baroda 376 for 4 (Aditya Waghmode 136, Deepak Hooda 75, Swapnil Singh 63 not out).
Binny hits ton as Karnataka post mammoth total
Alur: All-rounder Stuart Binny scored a scintillating century while Shreyas Gopal hit a splendid 92 as Karnataka put on a massive 649 in their first innings against Delhi on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Group A match.
At the close of play, Delhi were 20 without loss in five overs with openers Unmukt Chand and skipper Gautam Gambhir batting on 8 and 12, respectively.
Karnataka resumed the day on 348 for four as Binny, who resumed on 14, hammered 72 runs in only boundaries during his brilliant knock of 118 runs off 155 deliveries.
But another overnight batsman Mayank Agarwal was run out after adding just seven runs to his last night's score of 169. He departed for a well-made 176 off 250 balls, including 24 fours and three sixes.
After Agarwal's departure, Binny adopted an aggressive approach and scored runs quickly in the able company of wicketkeeper-batsman CM Gautam, who also chipped in with an important 46 off 81 balls with eight boundaries.
The duo stitched together a crucial 111-run partnership for the sixth wicket.
Binny, who has been in fine form with knocks of 41 and 61 runs in previous matches, continued the momentum.
Shreyas Gopal though missed out on a century by just eight runs, he played a responsible 165-ball 92 that was studded with 11 fours and a six.
Shreyas frustrated Delhi by putting on a 101-run partnership for the last wicket with Abhimanyu Mithun (35 not out).
For Delhi, Vikas Mishra and Manan Sharma bagged three wickets apiece, while Navdeep Saini, Kulwant Khejroliya and Tokas claimed a wicket each.
Group A Brief scores:
Karnataka 1st innings: 649 (Mayank Agarwal 176, Stuart Binny 118, Gopal Shreyas 92) vs Delhi 1st innings: 20 for no loss
In Pune: Maharashtra 1st innings: 481 (Rohit Motwani 189; Amit Mishra 4/98, Karan Thakur 4/114) vs Railways 1st innings: 80 for no loss.
In Guwahati: UP 1st innings: 349 (Saurab Kumar 133, Upendra Yadav 127) vs Assam 1st innings: 279 for 6 (Sibsankar Roy 72, Rishav Das 52; Saurabh Kumar 4/54).
