Ranji Trophy 2019 | Umesh Yadav runs through Kerala’s lineup as Shreyas Gopal’s crucial knock gives Karnataka edge

01/24/2019

After Jaydev Unadkat blew away Karnataka's top order very early in the morning, back to back half-centuries from Manish Pandey, Shreyas Gopal and Srinivas Sharath held their mast steady. In other game, Kerala witnessed a Umesh Yadav massacre as he picked up seven wickets to put Vidarbha on top.

Saurashtra vs Karnataka

Brief Scores:Karnataka 264/9 (Shreyas Gopal 87, Srinivas Sharath 74; Jaydev Unadkat 4/50, Kamlesh Makvana 3/73) vs Saurashtra.

Ravikumar Samarth, Mayank Agarwal, Krishnamurthy Siddharth, and Karun Nair – all could add a meager 30 runs before returning to the pavilion leaving Karnataka in a precarious position on the first day of their semi-final clash against Saurashtra. However, an experienced Pandey forged a 106-run partnership with Gopal as he scored a quick 62 off 67 balls to give some hope before Unadkat sent him back too. It seemed to be inspirational enough as Gopal (87) and Sharath (74*) added another 96 runs in the lower middle order to help Karnataka take a respectable lead for the loss of nine wickets.

Though Sharath remains unbeaten at the end of the day, he has Ronit More at the other end waiting to crumble under the simplest of pressure. Apart from Unadkat, Kamlesh Makvana also starred for Saurashtra as he scalped the wickets of Gopal, Gowtham, and Abhimanyu Mithun, preventing Karnataka a strong recovery. Chetan Sakariya and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja also pitched in crucial contributions with one wicket apiece but both kept their economy rate below three to suffocate out Karnataka batsmen. Karnataka ended their day with a 264 run lead with nine wickets gone as they would look to prevent Saurashtra from a big lead on Day 2.

Vidarbha vs Kerala

Brief Scores:Kerala 106/10 (Vishnu Vinod 37, Sachin Baby 22; Umesh Yadav 7/48, Rajneesh Gurbani 3/38) trail Vidarbha 171/5 (Faiz Faizal 75, Wasim Jaffer 34; Sandeep Warrier 2/46, MD Nidheesh 2/53) by 65 runs.

Kerala had one of the most horrible opening days in their history of the tournament as they were bundled out by Umesh Yadav for a meagre 106 runs. After slow starts from Ponnam Rahul and Mohammed Azharuddeen, the pressure really got to them as Azharuddeen returned to the pavilion in as early as the fourth over. After Sijimon Joseph went for a duck, Ponnam followed suit reducing the side to 27/3 in the ninth over. Though Sachin Baby looked to be in good touch for some time, the relentless collapse of Vinoop Manoharan and Arun Karthik saw Baby eventually giving in for 22 runs, which included four boundaries. It was a matter of time from there as the rest of the team collapsed in the next 11 overs adding another 60 runs. And had it not been for a persistent Vishnu Vinod (37) in the lower order, the figures would have been more dismal.

The star of the innings was, however, Yadav who enjoyed a seven-wicket haul, giving away 48 runs in 12 overs. He also got support from Rajneesh Gurbani, who took the remaining. Batting second, Vidarbha rose high on skipper Faiz Faizal’s knock of 75 runs that had set the tone after the early wicket of Sanjay Ramswamy. To Kerala’s fortune, Wasim Jaffer failed to click this time making only 34 runs. Sandeep Warrier and MD Nidheesh took a brace each for Kerala but Vidarbha lead by 65 runs. Vidarbha is standing at 171/5 at the end of the first day with Gurbani and Aditya Sarwate yet to open his account.