A round-up of the Ranji Trophy matches played on Monday
Out-of-favour India batsman Yuvraj Singh completed a hat-trick of centuries in the ongoing Ranji season before Mandeep Singh hit a double ton, which guided Punjab to a formidable 659/7 in their Group B cricket match against Saurashtra in Rajkot on Monday.
Resuming on an overnight score of 327/3 with Mandeep batting on 154 and Yuvraj five short of reaching yet another three-figure mark, the two batsmen pushed the hosts on the backfoot at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium on Day 2.
While Yuvraj made 182 runs off 299 balls, Mandeep went on to score a monumental 235, his runs coming off 334 balls (in 432 minutes).
Yuvraj spent 426 minutes in the middle, hitting 23 fours and two sixes. Mandeep struck 24 boundaries and three big sixes.
The duo put on 379 runs for the fourth wicket, before Gurkeerat Singh also joined century-scorers’ list, the team's third in the first innings. Gurkeerat remained not out on 101 as Punjab declared after batting for 168 overs and 698 minutes.
At stumps, Saurashtra were 27 for no loss, trailing by 632 runs in the first innings.
Thakur's fifer puts Mumbai in control despite Tiwary’s half-century
Mumbai pacer Shradul Thakur's third successive five-wicket haul left hosts Bengal staring at another humiliating defeat in their Ranji Trophy cricket Group A fixture at Eden Gardens on Monday.
Fresh from his nine-wicket match haul in their win against UP, Thakur (5/37) triggered a collapse as Bengal, despite playing with eight batsmen, were in tatters at 130 for six on day two, still trailing by 284 with four wickets in hands.
Mumbai scored 414 in the first innings.
Bengal still require 135 runs to avoid a repeat of follow on for second successive match, as Mumbai will now press for a bonus point win.
Amid the ruins, Manoj Tiwary stood tall with a well-made 63 off 78 balls with 40 runs coming in boundaries as his elegant stroke-making was the only bright spot for Bengal.
Having begun with three consecutive boundaries, Tiwary completed his 50 from 64 balls with the team on 66 for four that summed up Bengal's batting plight.
But Thakur produced the gem of a delivery to dismiss Tiwary, who was beaten by the pace and bounce to take a thin inside edge as Bengal's batting crumbled once again.
Thakur then castled Shukla (11) for his fourth five-wicket haul, his third in three matches, to take his tally to 23 from four matches this season.
Leading the pace attack in the absence of Zaheer Khan and Dhawal Kulkarni, Thakur said: "I took it up as a challenge and all my hard work is giving results. I did not have a good debut season a couple years ago. But I'm confident now as I'm bowling in the right areas."
The 23-year-old pacer had taken six wickets against Railways, and against UP he had six wickets in the first innings and three in the second.
Poor fielding and dropped catches was the order of the day for Bengal as Mumbai propped up by a 43-run last wicket partnership by Siddhesh Lad (64) and Kshemal Waigankar (13 not out) posted a commanding 414 in their first innings.
There were three more dropped catches on the day, making their total count to six in Mumbai's first innings, as the match seemed to be slipping out of Bengal's hands much like what had happened against Karnataka when they had lost by nine wickets.
Resuming at their overnight score of 306 for four, Mumbai skipper Suryakumar Yadav was dropped on 26 by Subhojit Banerjee, who failed to hold on to a low catch, letting down bowler Ashok Dinda big time.
The Bengal pace spearhead tested the Mumbai skipper with his accurate off stump line and generated swing to create pressure from the club house end, something that helped Pritam Chakraborty bag his maiden first-class wicket in Yadav (36).
Restricted at the other end, the Mumbai skipper threw his bat at a wide delivery only to get a thin edge behind the stumps to give Bengal the first break at 324 for 5 in 94.5 overs.
Continuing his fiery spell, Dinda claimed the scalp of young Sarfaraz Khan.
The 17-year-old, who had become the third youngest Indian first-class debutant, was out leg before for 1.
Wilkin Mota (4), Shradul Thakur (2) and Iqbal Abdulla (7) went in quick succession as they were 371 for nine, but poor catching once again meant Mumbai hurried past the psychological 400-mark.
Bengal could have easily bowled out Mumbai for 391 but Lad got a reprieve on 47 as Abhimanyu Easwaran dropped a sitter at deep point boundary as the Mumbai batsman posted his fourth FC half-century in his comeback innings.
Lad was again dropped on 60 with Sudeep Chatterjee putting down an easy catch at slip but the damage was done for Bengal by that time.
For Bengal, skipper Shukla and Veer Pratap claimed three wickets each, while Dinda and Chakraborty got two apiece.
Brief Scores: Mumbai: 414 in 121.2 overs (Siddhesh Lad 64; Laxmi Ratan Shukla 3/58, Veer Pratap singh 3/114, Pritam Chakraborty 2/82, Ashok Dinda 2/107).
Bengal: 130 for six in 46 overs (Manoj Tiwary 63; Shradul Thakur 5/37).
Tanmay misses ton but props UP vs J&K
Tanmay Srivastava (99) missed out on a hundred but Uttar Pradesh held steady to reach 267 for five in their first innings on the second day of their Group A Ranji Trophy cricket match in Kanpur on Monday.
Overnight on 113 for no loss, the hosts lost a wicket early in the day when opener Akash Verma departed after a 95-ball 57 which included five fours and couple of sixes.
Tanmay, however, held one end even as wickets tumbled at frequent intervals on a low-scoring day.
His 181-ball stay at the crease was brought to an end by Waseem Raza, who was the top wicket-taker for the visiting side with two strikes to his credit.
Srivastava, who struck 15 fours, was trapped LBW by Raza in the 68th over.
Arish Alam (38) and Eklavya Dwivedi (23) were holding fort for the home side when stumps were drawn.
Brief Scores: Uttar Pradesh 1st Innings: 267 for 5 (Srivastava 99, Verma 57, Raza 2-43).
Sehwag century puts Delhi in command
Virender Sehwag played an innings in complete contrast to his school of batsmanship as his 40th first-class century put Delhi in a comfortable position at the end of the second day of their Ranji Trophy Group B match against Gujarat in New Delhi on Monday.
Thanks to Sehwag's 105 and an equal contribution from Unmukt Chand (105), who scored his second successive century, Delhi declared their first innings at 425 for six.
In reply, Gujarat were 34 for one at stumps in 13 overs.
Sehwag curbed his natural instincts as he was focussed on cashing in on a good run of form that he is in currently after his 64 against Rajasthan.
There were the cuts, the drives and the pulls but completing a century off 145 balls is certainly slow by Sehwag's standards. There were a couple of phases when he played the defensive game, gave bowlers the respect.
His best phase during his four hour stay at the crease was the addition of 106 runs in just over 20 overs with Mithun Manhas (44, 62 balls, 8x4).
Sehwag’s innings consisted 14 boundaries as he reached his ton taking a single off left-arm spinner Pranjal Sutaria, who also dismissed him caught by Bhargav Merai.
"I believe Viru was never under any kind of pressure and is batting freely. If he played a game which is not his natural style, it shows his commitment for Delhi team. It was a type of century that the team expected from him," chief coach Vijay Dahiya said.
Delhi started the day on a sedate note with Unmukt really making rough weather of the three runs that he needed to score to complete his milestone.
He took more than 45 minutes to complete his sixth century before he went for a pull shot off a short ball from Kushang Patel to get out. Unmukt batted three minutes short of five hours and faced 227 balls, hitting 13 fours and four sixes in the process.
One can expect a good contest in the next two days as Gujarat have a fairly decent batting line-up capable of snatching three points.
But with the pitch getting lower and slower it will certainly make scoring runs a difficult proposition.
Brief Scores: Delhi 1st Innings: 425/6 decl (Virender Sehwag 105, Unmukt Chand 105, Jesal Karia 2/81)
Gujarat 1st Innings: 34/1 (Shivam Sharma 1/12).
Madhya Pradesh in trouble after Baroda score 358
Madhya Pradesh were in a spot of bother at 103 for three in reply to Baroda's decent first innings total of 358 riding on half-centuries from Deepak Hooda (85) and Saurabh Wakaskar (94) in a group league match of the Ranji Trophy Cricket tournament.
For MP, new ball bowler Puneet Datey grabbed 5 for 101 in
30 overs, which incidentally is his second five-wiccket haul in first-class cricket.
At stumps, Baroda were in command as right-arm medium pacer Sagar Manglorkar removed openers Sanjay Mishra (9), Jalaj Saxena (26) and No 3 Mohnish Mishra (18) to reduce MP to 65 for three before veterans Naman Ojha (19 batting) and Devendra Bundela (22 batting) avoided further damage with an unbroken stand of 38 runs.
Brief Scores: MP 1st Innings 358: (Saurabh Wakaskar 94, Deepak Hoda 85, Puneet Datey 5/101)
MP 1st innings 103/3 (Jalaj saxena 26, Devendra Bundela 22 batting, Naman Ojha 19 batting, Sagar Manglorkar 3/46).
Odisha take first innings lead over Haryana
Odisha managed to take the first innings lead over hosts Haryana, despite off-spinner Jayant
Yadav taking a six-wicket haul on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Group B cricket match in Lahli on Monday.
After bundling out Haryana for a meagre 127 in the first innings, Odisha reached 232 for nine at stumps, having already taken a 105-run lead with a wicket still remaining.
Resuming on 39 for no loss, both openers Girjia Rout (39) and Natraj Behera (39) top-scored for Odisha.
Among other batsmen, Arabind Singh (30), Biplab Samantray (25) and Suryakant Pradhan (33) made significant contributions.
For Haryana, Yadav finished with impressive figures of six for 91, while Mohit Sharma (3/38) claimed three wickets.
At stumps on day two, Basat Mohanty was unbeaten on 2 and giving him company at the other end was Dhiraj Singh on one.
Brief scores: Haryana: 1st innings: 127
Odisha: 1st innings: 232 for nine in 84 overs (Girjia Rout 39, Natraj Behera 39, Suryakant Pradhan 33; Jayant Yadav 6/91, Mohit Sharma 3/38).
Thakur grabs five to give Vidarbha upper-hand vs Rajasthan
Ravikumar Thakur grabbed five wickets in an impressive pace-bowling show to give Vidarbha an upperhand over Rajasthan on the second day of their Ranji Trophy cricket match in Jaipur on Monday.
Thakur (5/50) led a fine bowling display by Vidarbha to skittle Rajasthan out for 188 in 61.5 overs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
Only Rajasthan opener Vineet Saxena (61) put up a fight against Vidarbha bowlers to concede a 108-run lead to the visiting side.
Earlier, Vidarbha were all out for 296 after they resumed the day at 236 for six. The visiting side added 60 runs from 15.4 overs, losing four wickets in the process.
For Rajasthan, Pankaj Singh ended with figures of five for 109 while Aniket Choudhary and Deepak Chahar took three and two wickets respectively.
Brief Scores: Vidarbha: 296 all out in 99.4 overs (Shalabh Shrivastava 130; Pankaj Singh 5/109).
Rajasthan: 188 all out in 61.5 overs (Vineet Saxena 61; Ravikumar Thakur 5/50).
No play in TN-Railways match due to rain
The second day's play between Tamil Nadu and Railways in their Group B Ranji Trophy cricket match in Chennai was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to persistent rain on Monday.
On the first day too only 151 minutes of play was possible.
The rain ensured the hosts, who had elected to bat on Sunday, were struck on their overnight score of 144 for four at the M A Chidambaram Stadium.
Umpires Vineet Kulkarni and Rajesh Deshpande called off the second day's play at 14.30 pm.
