Ranji Trophy round-up: Prithvi scores a century, Siraj celebrates India call-up with four-for

The third round of Ranji Trophy matches across the four groups began on Tuesday and here’s a comprehensive round-up of all the action from day one.

Group C: Another classy ton for Prithvi Shaw

Young opener Prithvi Shaw underlined his class with a century against a quality Tamil Nadu attack to lead Mumbai to 314 for 7 on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Group C match in Mumbai.

Electing to bat after winning the toss, Mumbai suffered an early setback when comeback man V Yo Mahesh got Akhil Herwadkar in his first over. The opener was trapped leg-before for a duck.

Shaw and Shreyas Iyer, who has been picked in the India T20 team to face New Zealand, were in an aggressive frame of mind and attacked the Tamil Nadu bowlers. Iyer was in element as he reached a run-a-ball fifty. Shaw appeared subdued but played some splendid shots too as the Tamil Nadu bowlers struggled to contain the free-stroking Mumbai batsmen.

Iyer fell at 106 after a fluent knock of 57 which included seven fours and two sixes. Shaw, who was 76 at the lunch break, only required another 26 balls to reach his century and continued to push the Mumbai score along.

The young right-hander hit 17 fours and two sixes before falling for 123 to R Ashwin. Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare scored an important half-century to further the teams cause and added 63 runs with the experienced Abhishek Nayar, before Vijay Shankar provided TN the much-needed breakthrough.

The all-rounder provided another wicket for Tamil Nadu by sending back Vijay Gohil in the final over of the day as Mumbai finished at 314 for 7.

It was another hard day for Ashwin as he bowled 29 overs for 77 in picking up two wickets while Yo Mahesh also scalped two Mumbai batsmen.

Group A: Siraj celebrates India call-up

Pacer Mohammed Siraj celebrated his India call-up with a four wicket haul as Hyderabad dismissed Karnataka for 183 on the first day of a Ranji Trophy group A encounter in Shimoga, Karnataka.

At stumps, Hyderabad were 51 for 3 with Kolla Sumanth unbeaten on 34.

Siraj grabbed 4 for 42 in 15 overs as India international KL Rahul was castled by medium pacer Ravi Kiran for 4 runs. He looked rusty during his 27-ball stay at the crease. Hosts Karnataka after a good batting show in the previous game faltered badly with only Stuart Binny’s 61 off 88 balls adding some semblance of respectability to the total.

Karnataka were reduced to 89 for 6 at one stage but added 56 runs with Krishnappa Gowtham (13) as they managed to get close to 150-run mark.

Siraj hit the deck hard and got the deliveries to jag back into right-handers after pitching. He removed his India A teammate Ravikumar Samarth (19) and also breached through the defences of IPL specialist Mayank Agarwal (0), whose questionable technique was again exposed. Siraj also removed the dangerous looking Binny in his second spell along with Gowtham.

Group B: Amit Mishra is back!

Haryana managed a paltry 208 against Jharkhand on the first day of a Ranji Trophy group B encounter in Ranchi, a match that marked veteran leg-spinner Amit Mishra’s return to competitive cricket after six-month lay-off due to injury.

Off-spinner Sunny Gupta (4/67) and seamer Jaskaran Singh (3/52) shared bulk of the spoils with India A regular Shahbaz Nadeem at his parsimonious best taking 2 for 27 in 23 overs.

Haryana in fact suffered a batting collapse as they were comfortably placed at 146 for 2 in the second session before losing last eight wickets for 54 runs.

Opener Shubham Rohilla (52) and Chaitanya Bishnoi (61) were the top scorers for Haryana.

Mishra in his return to competitive cricket scored only 2 runs. He later bowled a couple of overs when Jharkhand batted at the end of the day to reach 14 for no loss.

Group D: Punjab enjoy a fine start

Opener Jiwanjot Singh struck double-century and Anmolpreet Singh hit a ton as Punjab reached 396 for two on the opening day of their Group D Ranji Trophy match against Goa in Porvorim.

Punjab has no points from two outings so far, having lost a match and conceding a lead in another. Opting to bat, Punjab did not have an ideal start as they lost opener Manan Vohra for a three-ball duck in the first over itself but his opening partner, Jiwanjot scored an unbeaten 215 to put the team in control by the end of the first day’s play.

When the stumps were drawn, Anmolpreet Singh was giving Jiwanjot company at the other end at an unbeaten 103. Jiwanjot and Anmolpreet shared an unbroken 236-run stand for the fourth wicket. Anmolpreet, promoted to No. 4 in the absence of Yuvraj Singh, struck 11 fours and two sixes, while Jiwanjot hit 26 boundaries and a six.

Brief scores:

Group A:

Karnataka 183 (Stuart Binny 61, KL Rahul 4, Mohammed Siraj 4/42) Hyderabad 51/3 (Kolla Sumanth 34 no)

In Guwahati: Assam 216/8 (Tarjinder Singh 43, Deepak Bansal 3/50, Anureet Singh 2/65, Amit Mishra 3/56) vs Railways

At Lucknow: Maharashtra 274/4 (Ankit Bawne 107 batting, Saurabh Kumar 3/100) vs Uttar Pradesh.

Group B:

Haryana 208 (Chaitanya Bishnoi 61, Shubham Rohilla 52, Sunny Gupta 4/67, Shahbaz Nadeem 2/27, Jaskaran Singh 3/52) Jharkhand 14/0 in 7 overs.

In Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala 232/3 (Rohan Prem 86, Jalaj Saxena 79, Pankaj Singh 1/49) vs Rajasthan

In Surat: Jammu and Kashmir 261 (Ahmed Bandy 54, Shubham Khajuria 54, Parveez Rasool 4, Piyush Chawla 5/92) . Gujarat 15/0 in 10 overs.

Group C:

Mumbai 314 for 7 in 89.1 overs (Prithvi Shaw 123, Shreyas Iyer 57, Aditya Tare 53, Vijay Shankar 3 for 37, R Ashwin 2 for 77) vs Tamil Nadu.

At Vizianagaram: Andhra Pradesh 278 for 2 in 89.5 overs (G Hanuma Vihari 143 batting, D B Prashanth Kumar 127) vs Odisha.

At Agartala: Tripura 88 for 6 in 40 overs (B B Ghosh 42 batting, Ishwar Pandey 3 for 20) vs Madhya Pradesh.

Group D:
Punjab 1st innings: 396/2 in 90 overs (Jiwanjot Singh 215 batting, Anmolpreet Singh 103 batting).

Himachal Pradesh 1st innings: 273/5 in 90 overs (Nikhil Gangta 89 batting, Ankush Bains 68; Vikas Yadav 3/79).

Chhattisgarh 1st innings: 246/3 in 89.2 overs (Amandeep Khare 116 batting, Ashutosh Singh 113; Umesh Yadav 3/44).