A summary of the second day in the latest round of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group

Cricinfo staff18-Dec-2005
ScorecardDheeraj Jadhav, tipped by many to be a potential India opener, sparkled on the second day’s play against Tamil Nadu at Nasik with a battling hundred, but the tourists held their own to grab nine wickets before stumps with Maharashtra just 32 runs ahead. Tamil Nadu did well to trigger a manic middle-order collapse following Jadhav’s dismissal, but Sairaj Bahutule stroked his way to a vital 77. Maharashtra’s day began well thanks to a fiery three-wicket burst from Munaf Patel, the opening bowler, as Tamil Nadu, 254 for 7 overnight, were bowled out for 275. Sreedharan Sharath, Tamil Nadu’s veteran, was the highest scorer with 75.Murali Kartik, the left-arm spinner currently on domestic duty, did his chances for a national recall no harm with a five-wicket haul to dismiss Mumbai for 367 on the second day’s play at the Wankhede Stadium, but Railways faced an uphill task after losing the vital wicket of Sanjay Bangar, their captain, before stumps. Ramesh Powar, Mumbai’s allrounder, proved a thorn in Railways side with a 221-ball 74 after Amol Muzumdar fell in the morning session with his 20th first-class hundred. Greg Chappell, India’s coach, had stated yesterday that there was little point in keeping Kartik in the squad for the second Test against Sri Lanka when he was not in the final XI, and his decision to give the spinner a chance to ply his trade in the Ranji Trophy was spot-on.A solid 79-run opening partnership between Shikhar Dhawan and Aakash Chopra made way for a critical period of collapse at the hands of Siddarth Trivedi and Hitesh Majmudar, Gujarat’s pace duo, as the hosts slipped to 186 for 5 on day two at the Feroze Shah Kotla. Trivedi, Gujarat’s opening bowler, continued from where he heroically left off on the first day with the wickets of Dhawan and Mayank Tehlan, whose previous stay at the wicket yielded a debut hundred, as Delhi proceeded to lose its way. In the morning session, Amit Bhandari, Delhi’s captain, added a sixth wicket to his tally to dismiss Gujarat for 143 and break a fine 60-run last wicket stand after Asraf Makda’s explosive innings spared them a major blemish. Despite the late hiccups, it was a marked improvement from Delhi’s batsmen after their first-innings 69, and set them up for what should be an engrossing third day’s play.
ScorecardFive strikes against Haryana before stumps at Hyderabad and a solid wag from the tail in the first two sessions of play made it Hyderabad’s day at Uppal. The star of the day was Narinderpal Singh, as he became the first medium-pacer from South Zone to claim 300 wickets in the Ranji Trophy when he trapped Bagheshwar Bist lbw in the third over. Earlier, Joginder Sharma’s third five-wicket haul of the season – he now sits atop the wickets tally with 24 – had earlier helped dismiss Hyderabad for 328, but given that they were 250 for 5 overnight, that total was significantly larger than the tourists would have liked. Haryana, still 222 runs behind Hyderabad, will need to put in a good day at the shop tomorrow, and much of that rests on the shoulders of Joginder and Mahesh Rawat, whose last innings was an unbeaten 90, in good time, against Baroda.An unbeaten 98-run stand between Bharat Chipli – who raced to a maiden first-class fifty – and Barrington Rowland led Karnataka’s reply after Rohan Gavaskar’s 96 took Bengal to 331 on the second day’s play at Mysore. Shib Paul, Bengal’s opening bowler, dismissed Robin Uthappa for just 5 in the fourth over of Karnataka’s reply, but Chipli and Rowland displayed terrific application towards their task by forging an aggressive partnership. In just his third innings for Karnataka, the 22-year old Chipli has already launched two sixes. Bengal’s first-innings total could have been substantially larger if not for the fine efforts of Udit Patel, the offspinner, who picked up four wickets to run through the tail.
ScorecardUttar Pradesh’s lower order stepped up to the plate to propel their side to 433 against Punjab on the second day of the Elite Group B match at Lucknow before Ashish Zaidi, the veteran fast bowler, capped a good day for the home side by dismissing both Punjab openers in a telling spell before stumps. Piyush Chawla, P Kumar and Avinash Yadav all produced career-best scores as 185 runs were added by the last four players. Hardevinder Sandhu, the opening bowler, was the most successful for Punjab with 3 for 101.
ScorecardMSK Prasad, Andhra’s wicketkeeper-batsman, finally struck form while patiently batting himself to a half-century at stumps on day two at Palam as the tourists finished on 112 for 2, 184 runs behind. Earlier, Jasvir Singh fell eight runs short of a hundred but Sarabjit Singh, Services’ wicketkeeping captain, pushed on to a gritty fifty as they added a further 83 to their overnight 203 for 4. This was the first score of note this season for Prasad, a former India wicketkeeper, and Andhra will look to him and Venugopal Rao, the captain, to further their fortunes as play resumes tomorrow.