A round-up of Day 2 of the Ranji Trophy matches played on Wednesday.
Hubli/Visakhapatnam: Karnataka pacer Abhimanyu Mithun scalped six wickets, as the hosts bundled out Uttar Pradesh for 281 on the second day of their Elite Group B Ranji Trophy game on Wednesday.
However, later in the day, UP bowlers made inroads and left Karnataka teetering at 168/4 despite a strong opening stand by Karnataka openers, as the hosts still trail by 113 runs with six wickets in hand.
The fight on Thursday will be to grab the crucial first-innings lead.
Uttar Pradesh resumed their innings on 232/5, with Mohammed Saif (80 off 181 balls, 11x4) and Saurabh Kumar (27 off 37 balls; 5x4) at the crease.
However, UP lost Saurabh Kumar early as he gave a catch to J Suchith off pacer Ronit More, as the visitors lost their sixth wicket with 250 on the board.
Then Mithun (6-60), who had taken three wickets on the opening day, ran through their lower order to scuttle them out for 281.
Mithun's scalps on Wednesday included rival stumper Upendra Yadav (3), Mohit Jangra (6) and Mohammed Saif, who played a valiant knock and added 24 runs to his overnight total.
He, however, was devoid of partners.
Courtesy Mithun's show, Karnataka ensured that UP could add only 49 runs to their overnight score.
Mithun was ably aided by another inform speedster, More (2-41), who broke the stand between Saif and Saurabh Kumar, and leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal (2-51).
In reply, Karnataka openers Devdutt Padikkal (74 off 108 balls, 10x4) and Dega Nischal (36 off 90 balls; 4x4) conjured a strong 91-run stand for the first wicket.
The two frustrated the UP bowlers before slow-left arm orthodox bowler Saurabh Kumar castled Nischal to send him back to the pavilion.
However, UP pegged back the hosts, taking three quick wickets to leave them teetering at 4-144.
One-down Ravikumar Samarth (11), skipper Karun Nair (13) fell in quick succession.
Jangra then dismissed Padikkal, who hit 10 boundaries.
Then Abhishek Reddy (23 not out) and Shreyas Gopal (8 not out) ensured that there was no further damage and remained unbeaten when stumps were drawn.
In another game at Visakhapatnam, Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara stuck a patient unbeaten half century against Railways for Saurashtra.
Pujara is batting on 69 off 136 balls with Arpit Vasavada (11 not out)as their side trails by only 37 runs after dismissing Railways for a paltry 248.
Brief Scores:
Uttar Pradesh 281 all out: (Aryan Juyal 109, Mohammed Saif 80; Abhimanyu Mithun 6-60, Ronit More 2-41) vs Karnataka 168/4 (Devdutt Padikkal 74, Dega Nishal 36; Mohit Jangra 2-36). Karnataka trailed by 113 runs.
At Dindigul: Himachal Pradesh 158 and 133/7 (Sumeet Verma 36; Rishi Dhawan 27 batting; T Natarajan 2-11; R Ashwin 2-50) versus Tamil Nadu 96 (R Ashwin 24, J Kousik 21; Vaibhav Arora 3-21, Mayank Dagar 2-17). Himachal Pradesh led by 195 runs.
At Indore: Madhya Pradesh 125 and 118/3 (Anand Bais 45, Rameez Khan 41; Krunal Pandya 1-10) versus Baroda 222 (Yusuf Pathan 76 not out, Krunal Pandya 64; Mihir Hirwani 4-21, Avesh Khan 4-69). Madhya Pradesh led by 21 runs.
At Visakhapatnam: Railways 248 (Pratham Singh 98, Karn Sharma 52; Jaydev Unadkat 4-56, Prerak Mankad 2-33) vs Saurashtra 211-3 (Cheteshwar Pujara 69 not out; Snell Patel 46; Karn Sharma 1-45). Saurashtra trailed by 37 runs.
Ricky's unbeaten 70 gives Andhra upper hand over Delhi
Ongole (Andhra Pradesh): Ricky Bhui cracked an unbeaten 70 to guide Andhra Pradesh to 249 for six against Delhi at stumps on day two of their Group A Ranji Trophy match on Wednesday.
Resuming at 16 for 2, Andhra rode on Ricky's unconquered 164-ball 70 and some useful contributions from Manish Golamaru (42), skipper G H Vihari (38) and Karan Shinde (48) to take a first innings lead of 34 runs.
At the draw of stumps, Girinath Reddy (11) was giving company to Ricky with two more days to go in the match.
For Delhi, pacer Navdeep Saini claimed two wickets on Wednesday to go with the one which he took on the opening day.
Pawan Suyal also accounted for two wickets and Simarjeet Singh (1/69) took one but the Delhi bowlers were guilty of giving away as many as 30 extras.
On Tuesday, Andhra had dismissed Delhi for 215 but found themselves in a spot of bother when they were reduced to 16 for two at stumps.
Overnight batsmen Manish Golamaru and Vihari added 78 runs after resumption of the innings to take Andhra close to the 100-mark.
However, Saini returned to dismiss both Manish and Vihari as Andhra slipped to 109 for four in 36.1 overs.
KS Bharat (1) too was dismissed LBW by Simarjeet as Andhra lost half of their side in 37.4 overs.
Ricky then joined hands with Karan and forged a 122-run partnership to overhaul Delhi's first innings score.
In other Group A matches, opener Abhishek Raman (110) scored a century while Manoj Tiwary (51) hit a fifty as Bengal reached 236 for 6 in reply to Kerala's first innings score of 239.
Bengal thus trailed Kerala by just three runs with four wickets remaining in their first innings at stumps.
Brief Scores:
Delhi 1st innings: 215 vs Andhra 1st innings: 249 for 6 in 87 overs (Ricky Bhui 70 not out; Navdeep Saini 3/77).
At Thumba: Kerala 1st innings: 239vs Bengal 1st innings: 236 for 6 in 86 overs (A Raman 110; Basil Thampi 2/35)
At Patiala: Hyderabad 1st innings: 242 vs Punjab 1st innings: 167 for 4 in 51 overs (Mandeep Singh 65; Mohammed Siraj 3/40)
At Nagpur:
Vidarbha 1st innings: 510 for 8 declared (FY Fazal 136, MR Kale 138, AV Wadkar 111; TM Ul-Haq 4/87) vs Rajasthan 1st innings: 45 for 1 in 19 overs (AV Gautam 35; U Yadav 1/15).
Maha shot out for 109, J&K's Uma Nazir bags 5 wickets
Pune: Jammu & Kashmir shot out Maharashtra for 109 in the first innings and made 155 for 4 in the second innings at stumps on day two of the Ranji Trophy Group C second round match on Wednesday, to gain an overall lead of 255 runs.
Resuming at 51 for 3, Maharashtra was bundled out for 109 in 41.1 overs as medium-pacer Umar Nazir picked up five wickets.
M S Trunkwala with 31 (54 balls, 5 fours, 1 six) was the top-scorer for the home side as none of the other batsmen got going.
Left-handed opener Suryansh Raina (79) ensured that J&K reached 155 for 4 to extend the lead to 255 runs.
He got together with Fazil Rashid (43 not out) to steady the innings after J&K was struggling at 26 for 3.
Earlier, Nazir (5/40), Mohammed Mudhasir (2/37) and Abid Mushtaq (2/23) dismissed the hosts' batsmen in the space of 25 overs with a disciplined display.
At Rohtak, skipper Harshal Patel starred with career-best match figures of 12 for 53 as Haryana inflicted an innings and 125 runs defeat on Tripura on the second day.
He followed his first innings effort of 7 for 29 with a five-wicket haul in the second as Tripura folded for 49 to enable Haryana grab seven points.
Brief scores: Group C: Jammu & Kashmir 209 all out in 63.5 overs (Ahmed Banday 76, Abid Mushtaq 50; A Sanklecha 4/56, DR Deshmukh 2/15) and 155 for 4 in 5 overs (Suryansh Raina 79 batting, Fazil Rashid 43) vs Maharashtra 109 all out in 41.1 overs (MS Trunkwala 31; Umar Nazir 5/40, Abid Mushtaq 2/23).
At Raipur: Uttarakhand 120 all out in 37.5 overs (D Negi 29; AJ Mandal 3/17, PM Datey 3/42) vs Chhattisgarh 462 for 6 in 122 overs (AN Khare 166 batting, Ajay Mandal 209 batting, Pradeep Chamoli 3/76).
At Cuttack: Services 271 all out in 66.1 overs (NH Verma 53, RS Paliwal 58, Rahul Singh 55; Basant Mohanty 6/69) vs Odisha 280 for 6 in 104 overs (Debasish Samantray 96 batting, Biplab Samantray 73, AR Sarangi 37, Shadab Nazar 2/67).
At Ranchi: Assam 162 all out in 56.5 overs (Riyan Parag 55, Sibshankar Roy 27; Anukul Roy 4/28, Shahbaz Nadeem 3/55, Ashish Kumar 3/25) vs Jharkhand 397 for 8 in 94.2 overs (Md Nazim 173, Utkarsh Singh 58, Anukul Roy 30 batting; Mukhtar Hussain 2/48).
At Rohtak: Tripura 63 all out in 19.4 overs (Tanmay Mishra 29; Harshal Patel 7/29, AH Hooda 3/14) and 49 all out in 16.3 overs (Harshal Patel 5/24, AH Hooda 5/21) lost to Haryana 242 all out in 63.2 overs (Chaitanya K Bishnoi 67, Shivam Chauhan 56; MB Murasingh 5/64) by an innings and 125 runs. Haryana: 7 points, Tripura: 0.
