Ranji Trophy | Rinku Singh leads Uttar Pradesh recovery, Chintan Gaja puts Kerala on back foot
While Rinku Singh stood tall to take Uttar Pradesh to a position of strength against Saurashtra, Chintan Gaja was the wrecker-in-chief for Gujarat against Kerala. On the other hand, Avneesh Sudha’s 91 was the reason behind Uttarakhand leading the charge against defending champions Vidarbha.
Vidarbha vs Uttarakhand
Brief Scores: Uttarakhand 296/6 (Avneesh Sudha 91, Saurabh Rawat 68*; Akshay Wakhare 2/46, Rajneesh Gurbani 2/72) vs Vidarbha.
Winning the toss, Vidarbha skipper Faiz Fazal decided to put Uttarakhand in to bat first at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur. And his bowlers did not disappoint with Rajneesh Gurbani dismissing Uttarakhand skipper Vineet Saxena in the very first over of the quarter-final.Â
Umesh Yadav then took up the responsibility as he sent both Karn Veer Kaushal and Vaibhav Bhatt packing with the scorecard reading just 44 runs. Uttarakhand needed someone to step up with the pressure piling on and they found some respite thanks to Vaibhav Singh and Avneesh Sudha, who stitched together a 140 run stand for the fourth wicket before the former was dismissed for 67.Â
But the incoming Saurabh Rawat made sure that his side did not lose any of the momentum and kept the runs coming for the visitors. Sudha fell short of his century by a mere nine runs when he was caught by Wakhare of his own bowling in the 67th over. While Gurbani managed to pick Malolan Rangarajan in the 87th over, Rawat (68*) ensured that he was still at the crease when stumps were called with his side in a decent position of 293/6.
Karnataka vs Rajasthan
Brief Scores: Rajasthan 224/10 (Rajesh Bishnoi 79, Mahipal Lomror 50; Abhimanyu Mithun 3/48, Krishnappa Gowtham 3/54) lead Karnataka 12/0 (Ravikumar Samarth 7*, Dega Nischal 5*) by 212 runs.Â
In the third quarter final taking place at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, it was the hosts’ skipper, who won the and decided that his side would bowl first. It proved to be right decision although it might not have looked like it right from the get-go. Even though Vinay Kumar got rid of Amit Kumar Gautam as early as the seventh over, Chetan Bist and Mahipal Lomror put together a neat 46-run partnership.Â
However, once Shreyas Gopal got rid of Chetan in 22nd over, the floodgates opened and Rajasthan found themselves down by four wickets with their score still in double digits. It didn’t get any better as the game progressed and when Lomror, who scored a half-century, was dismissed with the scoreboard reading 135/6, the visitors looked doomed. But they found a hero in the form of Rajesh Bishnoi, who played brilliantly with the lower order to take the score 224 before he holed out to Vinay off Mithun’s bowling for a well made 79.Â
Knowing fully well that there wasn’t too much time left in the day’s play, Ravikumar Samarth and Dega Nischal saw out the five overs to take the score to 12/0 before umpires Nand Kishore and Nikhil Patwardhan called an end to action on Day 1.
Uttar Pradesh vs Saurashtra, Lucknow
Brief scores: Uttar Pradesh 340/7 (Rinku Singh 150, Priyam Garg 49; Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 3-111, Jaydev Unadkat 2/65) vs Saurashtra.
When Kolkata Knight Riders recruited Rinku Singh in the last year’s Indian Premier League, everyone was surprised. The Uttar Pradesh batsman had a very limited number of domestic matches under his belt and was a highly doubtful starter for the team in the previous editions. However, after his stint with the IPL franchise, Rinku’s sudden transformation has been one of the finest stories of the year.
In the league phase, he hit three centuries with the lowest score being an astonishing 149 and if that was not a warning sign for the Saurashtra team, then they were completely misplaced in their preparation. After reducing the hosts to 7/2 and then 54/4 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Saurashtra’s pace bowling line-up, of whom their coach Sitanshu Kotak spoke highly yesterday, failed to contain Rinku as he ended the day with a 181-ball 150 to lift UP to 340 for 7.Â
Rinku got support from youngster Priyam Garg, whose 49 made sure that they struck up a partnership worth 145 runs for the fifth wicket to start the recovery. After Rinku was dismissed by Kamlesh Makvana with the team being at 280, the lower-order helped take the team past 300 and put them at a safe position.
Kerala vs Gujarat, Wayanad
Brief scores: Kerala 185/9 (Basil Thampi 37, Ponnam Rahul 26; Chintan Gaja 4-57, Arzan Nagwaswalla 3/50) lead Gujarat 97/4 (Parthiv Patel 43, Rahul V Shah 15; Sandeep Warrier 2-21, Sandeep Warrier 2/21) by 88 runs.
Kerala’s batting today followed the same script as had been the case this year - If Jalaj Saxena bats well, Kerala will kill it. Today was one of those days where Saxena’s bat remained strangely silent and the team ended up being strangled by Gujarat at the end of the first day’s play. Playing at home, Kerala’s batting lineup found it hard to overcome the challenge posed by Chintan Gaja and Arzan Nagwaswalla as they shared seven wickets between them to take the honours of the day.
Kerala lacked that one thing that put Uttar Pradesh in control of their game today. For Uttar Pradesh, almost everyone failed but Rinku Singh held one end solidly, but for Kerala, neither of Mohammed
Proceedings were not easy for the Gujarat batsmen either as they found themselves at 14 for 2 before Parthiv Patel counter-attacked with a 36-ball 43. Basil Thampi dismissed Patel before they ended the day with the scorecard reading 97 for 4.
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