Rasool stars for J&K, Rawat stalls Bengal
10 Jan 2014 6:13 AM IST
In reply to Punjab’s first innings score of 304, Jammu and Kashmir rode on Rasool’s gutsy 103 off 137 balls before folding up for 277, conceding a slender first innings lead of 27 runs on the second day.
J&K seamers Umar Nazir and Mohammed Mudhasir then struck two early blows to remove the in-form openers Jiwanjot Singh (8) and Manan Vohra (7) cheaply. At stumps, Punjab were struggling at 15 for two, having an overall lead of 42.
With Ranji quarter-finals being a five-day affair, there is every possibility that this slender first innings lead will be of little consequence as the match is expected to have an outright result with three full days left.
The day belonged to Rasool, who showed that he is ready to go one up on Harbhajan as he hit 11 fours and a lovely six over deep mid-wicket off veteran India off-spinner’s bowling.
He completed his fifth first-class century with a couple of boundaries. The ton came off 131 balls.
Rasool had two important partnerships during the course of the Jammu and Kashmir innings.
The first was a 81-run stand with in-form opener Adil Rishi (65) for the fourth wicket after J&K were reduced to 62 for three.
Rishi and Rasool carried the team to 141 before Yuvraj Singh trapped the opener leg before with an arm ball. Rishi hit nine fours and one six in his 108-ball innings. Rishi’s total runs this season has gone upto 643 but Rasool Thursday overtook him as he completed 650 runs in the current season.
Brief Scores Punjab 304 & 15/2; J&K 277 (Rasool 103, Adil Rishi 65, S Beigh 37, Sandeep Sharma 4/46).
Mahesh Rawat’s ton keeps Bengal at bay
KOLKATA: Railways’ experienced campaigner Mahesh Rawat proved to be the thorn in the flesh for Bengal as he stood tall with an unbeaten century to lead the visiting team’s recovery on day two of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal here Thursday.
Propelled by Rawat’s unbeaten 105 in an undefeated 191-run partnership with Arindam Ghosh (78 batting) Railways ended day two at 233/5, trailing Bengal by only 84 runs with five wickets in hand.
In reply to Bengal’s challenging first innings total of 317, Railways were tottering at 42/5 after losing three wickets for four runs just after lunch when Ashoke Dinda was firing on all cylinders with veteran Shib Shankar Paul giving a good back-up.
But the Railways wicketkeeper-batsman, counter-attacked Dinda with six successive classical boundaries before turning around the match for the visitors.
The flurry of boundaries against Bengal’s strike bowler derailed the home side and it failed to recover from the slide. Luck too went in favour of Rawat, who survived a run-out scare when he was on 28.
Barring this, it was a chance-less knock by Rawat and he executed his shots to perfection. Bengal’s bowling was reduced to a two-pace attack in Dinda and Paul with Sourav Sarkar lacking in intensity.
In no time, Rawat raced to his ninth 50-plus score from 10 matches this season, notching up his 28th first-class half century in 48 balls.
Such was his domination that Rawat scored 78 runs in (18) fours and sixes in his 125-ball unbeaten innings. The batsman has over 700 runs under his belt at an average of over 70 this season. In local-lad Ghosh, Rawat found a perfect ally as the two leading run-getters of Railways staged yet another recovery act.
Brief Scores Bengal 317) (W Saha 87; Anureet Singh 4/88); Railways 233/5 (Mahesh Rawat 105*, Arindam Ghosh 78*; Ashok Dinda 3/83, SS Paul 2/36).
Thakur flattens Maharashtra to put Mumbai on top
MUMBAI: Young Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur produced an incisive four-wicket haul after the home team’s tail wagged merrily to put the defending champions in total command of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Maharashtra on Thursday.
Thakur bent his back on the bouncy Wankhede wicket and produced fiery spells, backed up by a very attacking umbrella field behind the wicket on both sides, to shake up the Maharashtra batting line up after Mumbai ran up a huge first innings total of 402.
Thakur, who went into his sixth game of the season with 21 wickets under his belt, ended the day with highly impressive figures of 4 for 62 that shook up Maharashtra who were reduced to 24 for 3 before recovering to 219 for 7 at stumps on day two of the five-day game.
The visitors’ score was mainly built around the 115-run fourth wicket partnership in 146 balls between top-scorer Ankit Bawne (84) and Kedar Jadhav (51) whose dismissals within the space of half an hour post tea spelt further trouble for Maharashtra.
The batsmen holding fort at close were Shrikant Mundhe (14) and Akshay Darekar (16). Maharashtra were facing an uphill task as they were 183 runs behind the home team, with little batting left to come on Friday.
Brief Scores Maharashtra 219/7 (Bawne 84, Jadhav 51, Thakur 4-62) trail Mumbai 402 (Indulkar 82, Yadav 120, Abdulla 49*) by 183 runs.
Seamers shine, Karnataka take 1st innings lead over Uttar Pradesh
BANGALORE: Seamers Abhimanyu Mithun and R Vinay Kumar wreaked havoc as Karnataka reduced Uttar Pradesh to 221 for nine, giving themselves a good chance to grab first innings lead, on the second day of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match on Thursday.
Mithun was the most successful bowler with figures of four for 70 but Vinay was the most difficult as he picked up three wickets after conceding 49 runs in 18 overs.
Mithun removed Prashant Gupa (0), Mohammad Kaif (0), Chawla (56) and Amit Mishra (4), while Vinay picked up Tanmay Srivastava (32), Mukul Dagar (13) and Eklavya Dwivedi (2). Pacer H S Sharath and part-time spinner Robin Uthappa picked one wicket each. Sharath removed Ali Murtaza (1) caught behind by Gautam, who claimed first of the three catches in the day.
UP is still 128 runs behind Karnataka’s first innings score of 349 and it is a clear-cut edge for the hosts as they have to get just one wicket at Chinnaswamy Stadium Friday.
For UP, Parvinder Singh was the lone crusader with the bat as he missed his century by eight runs. He was the last man to be dismissed by part-timer Robin Uthappa. He made 92 runs off 181 balls with 13 boundaries.
The 110-run partnership between Parvinder (92) and Piyush Chawla (56) for the seventh wicket raised hopes for the visitors to wriggle out of the turmoil, but inform Mithun had the latter caught behind by Chidambaram Gautam to bring back the game in their favour.
Earlier, UP picked up five wickets for just 52 runs to restrict Karnataka to 349 runs after they had ended the opening day at 297 for five.
The saving grace for the hosts in the morning session was when Gautam became the third batsman in the innings to belt a century. He faced 118 balls to reach his well-crafted 100 by cracking 16 boundaries, before he was castled by a medium pacer from Amit Mishra.
Abrar Kazi and Mithun were the other two batsmen who reached double figures, before they were sent back into the dressing room for 23 and 13, respectively.
Brief Scores
Uttar Pradesh 221 for 9 (Parvinder 92, Mithun 4-70) trail Karnataka 349 (Uthappa 100, Nair 100, Gautam 100) by 128 runs.
J&K seamers Umar Nazir and Mohammed Mudhasir then struck two early blows to remove the in-form openers Jiwanjot Singh (8) and Manan Vohra (7) cheaply. At stumps, Punjab were struggling at 15 for two, having an overall lead of 42.
With Ranji quarter-finals being a five-day affair, there is every possibility that this slender first innings lead will be of little consequence as the match is expected to have an outright result with three full days left.
The day belonged to Rasool, who showed that he is ready to go one up on Harbhajan as he hit 11 fours and a lovely six over deep mid-wicket off veteran India off-spinner’s bowling.
He completed his fifth first-class century with a couple of boundaries. The ton came off 131 balls.
Rasool had two important partnerships during the course of the Jammu and Kashmir innings.
The first was a 81-run stand with in-form opener Adil Rishi (65) for the fourth wicket after J&K were reduced to 62 for three.
Rishi and Rasool carried the team to 141 before Yuvraj Singh trapped the opener leg before with an arm ball. Rishi hit nine fours and one six in his 108-ball innings. Rishi’s total runs this season has gone upto 643 but Rasool Thursday overtook him as he completed 650 runs in the current season.
Brief Scores Punjab 304 & 15/2; J&K 277 (Rasool 103, Adil Rishi 65, S Beigh 37, Sandeep Sharma 4/46).
Mahesh Rawat’s ton keeps Bengal at bay
KOLKATA: Railways’ experienced campaigner Mahesh Rawat proved to be the thorn in the flesh for Bengal as he stood tall with an unbeaten century to lead the visiting team’s recovery on day two of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal here Thursday.
Propelled by Rawat’s unbeaten 105 in an undefeated 191-run partnership with Arindam Ghosh (78 batting) Railways ended day two at 233/5, trailing Bengal by only 84 runs with five wickets in hand.
In reply to Bengal’s challenging first innings total of 317, Railways were tottering at 42/5 after losing three wickets for four runs just after lunch when Ashoke Dinda was firing on all cylinders with veteran Shib Shankar Paul giving a good back-up.
But the Railways wicketkeeper-batsman, counter-attacked Dinda with six successive classical boundaries before turning around the match for the visitors.
The flurry of boundaries against Bengal’s strike bowler derailed the home side and it failed to recover from the slide. Luck too went in favour of Rawat, who survived a run-out scare when he was on 28.
Barring this, it was a chance-less knock by Rawat and he executed his shots to perfection. Bengal’s bowling was reduced to a two-pace attack in Dinda and Paul with Sourav Sarkar lacking in intensity.
In no time, Rawat raced to his ninth 50-plus score from 10 matches this season, notching up his 28th first-class half century in 48 balls.
Such was his domination that Rawat scored 78 runs in (18) fours and sixes in his 125-ball unbeaten innings. The batsman has over 700 runs under his belt at an average of over 70 this season. In local-lad Ghosh, Rawat found a perfect ally as the two leading run-getters of Railways staged yet another recovery act.
Brief Scores Bengal 317) (W Saha 87; Anureet Singh 4/88); Railways 233/5 (Mahesh Rawat 105*, Arindam Ghosh 78*; Ashok Dinda 3/83, SS Paul 2/36).
Thakur flattens Maharashtra to put Mumbai on top
MUMBAI: Young Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur produced an incisive four-wicket haul after the home team’s tail wagged merrily to put the defending champions in total command of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Maharashtra on Thursday.
Thakur bent his back on the bouncy Wankhede wicket and produced fiery spells, backed up by a very attacking umbrella field behind the wicket on both sides, to shake up the Maharashtra batting line up after Mumbai ran up a huge first innings total of 402.
Thakur, who went into his sixth game of the season with 21 wickets under his belt, ended the day with highly impressive figures of 4 for 62 that shook up Maharashtra who were reduced to 24 for 3 before recovering to 219 for 7 at stumps on day two of the five-day game.
The visitors’ score was mainly built around the 115-run fourth wicket partnership in 146 balls between top-scorer Ankit Bawne (84) and Kedar Jadhav (51) whose dismissals within the space of half an hour post tea spelt further trouble for Maharashtra.
The batsmen holding fort at close were Shrikant Mundhe (14) and Akshay Darekar (16). Maharashtra were facing an uphill task as they were 183 runs behind the home team, with little batting left to come on Friday.
Brief Scores Maharashtra 219/7 (Bawne 84, Jadhav 51, Thakur 4-62) trail Mumbai 402 (Indulkar 82, Yadav 120, Abdulla 49*) by 183 runs.
Seamers shine, Karnataka take 1st innings lead over Uttar Pradesh
BANGALORE: Seamers Abhimanyu Mithun and R Vinay Kumar wreaked havoc as Karnataka reduced Uttar Pradesh to 221 for nine, giving themselves a good chance to grab first innings lead, on the second day of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match on Thursday.
Mithun was the most successful bowler with figures of four for 70 but Vinay was the most difficult as he picked up three wickets after conceding 49 runs in 18 overs.
Mithun removed Prashant Gupa (0), Mohammad Kaif (0), Chawla (56) and Amit Mishra (4), while Vinay picked up Tanmay Srivastava (32), Mukul Dagar (13) and Eklavya Dwivedi (2). Pacer H S Sharath and part-time spinner Robin Uthappa picked one wicket each. Sharath removed Ali Murtaza (1) caught behind by Gautam, who claimed first of the three catches in the day.
UP is still 128 runs behind Karnataka’s first innings score of 349 and it is a clear-cut edge for the hosts as they have to get just one wicket at Chinnaswamy Stadium Friday.
For UP, Parvinder Singh was the lone crusader with the bat as he missed his century by eight runs. He was the last man to be dismissed by part-timer Robin Uthappa. He made 92 runs off 181 balls with 13 boundaries.
The 110-run partnership between Parvinder (92) and Piyush Chawla (56) for the seventh wicket raised hopes for the visitors to wriggle out of the turmoil, but inform Mithun had the latter caught behind by Chidambaram Gautam to bring back the game in their favour.
Earlier, UP picked up five wickets for just 52 runs to restrict Karnataka to 349 runs after they had ended the opening day at 297 for five.
The saving grace for the hosts in the morning session was when Gautam became the third batsman in the innings to belt a century. He faced 118 balls to reach his well-crafted 100 by cracking 16 boundaries, before he was castled by a medium pacer from Amit Mishra.
Abrar Kazi and Mithun were the other two batsmen who reached double figures, before they were sent back into the dressing room for 23 and 13, respectively.
Brief Scores
Uttar Pradesh 221 for 9 (Parvinder 92, Mithun 4-70) trail Karnataka 349 (Uthappa 100, Nair 100, Gautam 100) by 128 runs.
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