Ranji Trophy 2018-19 | Karnataka take first innings lead while Vidarbha fight back against Uttarakhand

Vidarbha vs Uttarakhand

Brief Scores: Uttarakhand 355/10 (Saurabh Rawat 108, Avneesh Sudha 91; Umesh Yadav 4/90, Akshay Wakhare 2/46) lead Vidarbha 260/1 (Sanjay Ramaswamy 112*, Wasim Jaffer 111*; Deepak Dhapola 1/45) by 95 runs.

Starting with an overnight score of 296/6, Uttarakhand were relying on Saurabh Rawat to get them to a respectable score in the first innings against defending champions Vidarbha. And the 21-year-old delivered as he forged partnerships with Malolan Rangarajan, Mayank Mishra, and Sunny Rana to take the score to 345 bringing up the first century of the game. However, that is as far as he could take his side as he holed out to Suniket Bingewar off the bowling of Umesh Yadav for a well made 108. Uttarakhand folded their innings 10 runs later with the scoreboard reading 355.

Contrary to their opponents, Vidarbha got off to a decent start with both Faiz Fazal and Sanjay Ramaswamy looking in good touch. However, the Vidarbha skipper could make much use of his good start has he was dismissed by Deepak Dhapola for 29 runs in just 14.3 overs. However, Sanjay Ramaswamy and Wasim Jaffer brought up their respective centuries ensuring that the defending champions reached a very comfortable situation as they forged an unbeaten 215 run stand. Uttarakhand, who used an incredible eight bowlers in the innings, will hope to get some momentum back but it will be hard for them to take the match away from Vidarbha. 

Karnataka vs Rajasthan

Brief Scores: Rajasthan 224/10 (Rajesh Bishnoi 79, Mahipal Lomror 50; Abhimanyu Mithun 3/48, Krishnappa Gowtham 3/54) & 11/0 (Amitkumar Gautam 11*, Chetan Bist 0*) trail Karnataka 263/10 (Vinay Kumar 83*, Krishnamurthy Siddharth 52, Dega Nischal 5*; Rahul Chahar 5/93, TM Ul-Haq 3/50) by 28 runs. 

Playing on from an overnight score of 12/0, Karnataka got off to a bad start as Dega Nischal was dismissed with team adding just five more runs. However, the incoming Krishnamurthy Siddharth and Ravikumar Samarth ensured that the damage was restricted as they took the score to 61/2 before the latter was dismissed for 32 off Rahul Chahar’s bowling. That gave the Rajasthan bowlers the required confidence as both Karun Nair and Manish Pandey were back in the hut with the team still in double digits. Siddharth didn’t last too long after that, as Rahul Chahar (5/93) and TM Ul-Haq (3/50) wreaked havoc on the hosts. 

While Shreyas Gopal chipped in with a handy 25, Karnataka were sinking without a trace as the hosts found themselves at 166/9 with a first innings deficit of 68 runs. With one wicket in hand, Karnataka looked be headed towards handing Rajasthan the first innings lead but veteran Vinay Kumar stepped to the plate and delivered a memorable performance. Along with Ronit More, who scored 10 runs off 59 balls, Vinay scored an unbeaten 83 off 144 balls to take his side 39 runs clear off the visitors. With just three overs left in the day, Gautam and Chetan Bist took the score to 11/0 before the action was called off.

Uttar Pradesh vs Saurashtra

Brief scores: Uttar Pradesh 385/10 (Rinku Singh 150, Saurabh Kumar 55; Jaydev Unadkat 5/86, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 3-111) lead Saurashtra 170/7 (Harvik Desai 84, Prerak Mankad 42*; Shivam Mavi 3/39, Yash Dayal 2/35) by 215 runs.

Riding on yet another Rinku Singh century, Uttar Pradesh had already amassed a massive 340 runs as they began Day 2 in Lucknow. Saurabh Kumar and Shivam Mavi added another 32 runs to the board before the latter was dismissed by Jaydev Unadkat. The India international then got rid of Ankit Rajpoot three balls later before closing out the innings with the wicket of Saurabh Kumar, who completed his half century, to earn himself a five-for and restrict UP to just 385 in the first innings. 

As was the case in the first innings, the batsmen found it hard to stay at the crease with Snell Patel (16) being dismissed with the score at just 35. Harvik Desai made sure that he kept putting on the runs from one side but found it hard to find a partner to build an innings with. Vishvaraj Jadeja (0), Cheteshwar Pujara (11), Sheldon Jackson (6), and Aarpit Vasavada (0) all failed to give Desai the support he needed as Saurashtra found themselves struggling at a score of just 86 with half their lineup back in the dressing room. Desai finally got the partnership he was craving with the arrival of Prerak Mankad as the duo took the score to 151 before Desai’s fight came to an end 16 runs short of his century. Saurashtra eventually closed out the day with a score of 170 with just three wickets left in the bag.

Kerala vs Gujarat

Brief scores:Kerala 185/9 (Basil Thampi 37, Ponnam Rahul 26; Chintan Gaja 4-57, Arzan Nagwaswalla 3/50) & 171/10 (Sijomon Joseph 56, Jalaj Saxena 44*; Roosh Kalaria 3/36, Axar Patel 3/40) lead Gujarat 162/10 (Parthiv Patel 43, Roosh Kalaria 36; Sandeep Warrier 4/42, Nidheesh 3/38) by 194 runs.

After being dismissed for a paltry 185 in the first innings, Kerala had done a good job of restricting Gujarat to just 97/4 at the end of the first day’s play. However it was the hosts who grabbed the initiative early on Day 2 through Sandeep Warrier and Basil Thampi, who got rid of Rujul Bhatt, Dhruv Raval, and Axar Patel in a space of two overs to reduce Gujarat to just 107/7. Still trailing by 78 runs, Gujarat needed the pairing of Piyush Chawla and Roosh Kalaria to dig them out of the hole they found themselves in. The duo added 30 runs to the board before Chawla was bowled by Nidheesh but Kalaria kept going and for a while it looked like he might be able to get Gujarat the lead. However, after adding 19 runs for the final wicket, Kalaria also succumbed to the same fate as Chawla as the visitors fell 23 runs short. 

But Kerala failed to keep the momentum going as their openers fell meekly with just 12 runs on the board. Despite Sijomon Joseph, who scored a half century, putting up a fight, the rest of the middle order collapsed like a house of cards to take the score 96/5. Joseph found an able deputy in the form of Jalaj Saxena but he failed to take Kerala clear of danger. Jalaj, who remained unbeaten at 44, failed to get any help from the tail as the last four batsmen fell for a combined zero runs. Kerala will have the ball tomorrow knowing fully well that their 194 run target is not as easy as it seems.