Delhi’s woes with the willow continued as the team struggled to 214 for six after the likes of Yash Dhull and Himmat Singh failed to convert their starts into substantial knocks in their Ranji Trophy match against Assam in New Delhi on Sunday. Resuming at their overnight score of 264 for six, Assam’s first innings innings ended at 330 with wicketkeeper Sumit Ghadigaonkar making 162 off 237 balls. Ghadigaonkar was overnight 120, having seen his colleagues blown away by Harshit Rana’s excellent bowling. Delhi were 214 for six at stumps on day two, trailing Assam by 116 runs.
Having received his maiden Test call-up, Rana ended with fine figures of 5/80 in 19.3 overs, wrapping up Assam’s innings with the wicket of Mrinmoy Dutta.
When their turn to bat came, Delhi lost Gagan Vats for a duck but Sanat Sangwan (47 off 88 balls) and Dhull (47 off 44 balls) added 66 runs for the second wicket to stead the innings.
Dhull’s wicket signalled the arrival of skipper Himmat, who added 81 runs for the third wicket with Sangwan before the latter was out leg before.
Even as Sangwan walked back to the pavilion, Himmat looked determined to play a long innings but nine runs later, Assam’s veteran off-spinner Swarupam Purkayastha dashed his hopes by bowling out the batter for an 88-ball 55.
Purkayastha was Assam’s best bowler on the day with figures of 3/46 in 17 overs, while left-arm spinner Rahul Singh picked up 2/32 in the Group D match.
When Rahul had wicketkeeper Pranav Rajuvanshi trapped in front of the wicket, Delhi were in all sorts of trouble at 182 for six. But Sumit Mathur (19 batting) and Rana (15 batting) ensured there was no further casualty for the home team until the close of play on the second day.
At Delhi: Assam 330 (Sibsankar Roy 59, Sumit Ghadigaonkar 162; Harshit Rana 5/80) lead Delhi 214-6 (Himmat Singh 55; Swarupam Purkayastha 3/46) by 116 runs.
At Jamshedpur: Jharkhand 202 (Anukul Roy 61; Jagjit Singh 3/32, Vishu Kashyap 3/64) lead Chandigarh 34-0 (Shivam Bhambri 23 batting) by 168 runs.
At Coimbatore: Chhattisgarh 500 (Aayush Pandey 124, Anuj Tiwary 84, Sanjeet Desai 82, Eknath Kerkar 52, Ajay Mandal 64; Ajith Ram 4/132) lead Tamil Nadu 23-1 (Ajith Ram 10 batting; Jivesh Butte 1/5) by 477 runs.
At Rajkot: Railways 234 & 122-7 (Shivam Chaudhary 35; Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 3/40, Yuvrajsinh Dodiya 3/50) lead Saurashtra 196 (Prerak Mankad 52; Karn Sharma 4/38) by 160 runs.
Samarth hundred guides Uttarakhand to 242/7
Captain Ravikumar Samarth led by example with a fine century to prop up Uttarakhand before Vidarbha nosed ahead with two wickets at the fag end of second day’s play in their Ranji Trophy Group B match in Dehradun on Sunday.
Responding to Vidarbha’s first-innings total of 326 all out, Uttarakhand managed to reach 242 for seven at stumps thanks to Samarth’s innings of 119, which came off 241 balls.
However, the home team trailed Vidarbha by 84 runs despite Samarth’s hundred.
The 31-year-old Samarth, who left Karnataka to play for Uttarakhand this season, used his years of experience in first class cricket to keep his side in the game against last season’s runners-up.
Having come here with a reputation for being fluent at the top of the order, Samarth struck 12 boundaries during his stay in the middle, helping his team remain in the game.
The problem with Uttarakhand innings was that Samarth did not get enough support at the other end.
Kunal Chandela (19), Yuvraj Chaudhary (28) and Swapnil Singh (27) got starts but could not convert them into big scores. Even opener Avneesh Sudha seemed to have got his eye in but fell after making 30 off 45 balls.
The 39-year-old veteran off-spinner Akshay Wakhare was the day’s most bowler for Vidarbha, returning figures of 3/47 in 17 overs, where there were two wickets for Aditya Thakare.
At stumps, Mayank Mishra and Abhay Negi were batting on 1 and 2 respectively.
In Dehradun: Vidarbha 326 all out in 88 overs (Dhruv Shorey 35, Danish Malewar 56, Yash Rathod 135; Mayank Mishra 3/72, Avneesh Sudha 2/35, Swapnil Singh 2/70) vs Uttarakhand 242/7 in 87 overs (Ravikumar Samarth 119; Akshay Wakhare 3/47)
In Visakhapatnam: Andhra 344 all out in 92.4 overs (Shaik Rasheed 69, Hanuma Vihari 66, Srikar Bharat 65; Rishi Dhawan 3/80, Divesh Sharma 5/60) vs Himachal Pradesh 198/4 in 65 overs (Ankit Kalsi 53, Akash Vasisht 52; KV Sasikanth 3/50).
In Jaipur: Gujarat 335 all out in 97.4 overs (Priyank Panchal 110, Aarya Desai 86, Jaymeet Patel 61, Umang Kumar 41; Arafat Khan 4/50, Kukna Ajay Singh 3/102) vs Rajasthan 180/5 in 69 overs (Abhijeet Tomar 77; Jaymeet patel 3/77).
In Hyderabad: Hyderabad 536/8 declared in 163 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 173, Abhirath Reddy 68, Rohit Rayudu 84, Kodimela Himateja 60, Tanay Thyagarajan 53; Ankit Sharma 3/117, Satish Jangir 2/72) vs Puducherry 24/2 in 12 overs.
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