Gaikwad leads strong Maharashtra response after Iyer's ton lifts Mumbai
Ruturaj Gaikwad hit an unbeaten 80 to lead a strong reply for Maharashtra but they were still trailing by 173 runs in their Group A Ranji Trophy match against Mumbai on Saturday.
Maharashtra reached 142 for one in their second innings at the end of the second day.
Sachin Dhas was batting on 59 (7x4s, 1x6s) was giving company to Gaikwad at the end of the day.
The defending champions Mumbai had taken a massive lead of 315 runs as they posted 441 in the first innings after dismissing Mumbai for a mere 126.
Mumbai, who resumed their first innings at 220 for three, were bolstered by a robust 176 from their 17-year-old opener Ayush Mhatre who struck a ton in only his third first-class match.
While India T20 skipper Suryakumar Yadav had to deal with disappointment of being dismissed for seven, Iyer made the most as he cracked 142 from 190 balls with 12 fours and four sixes.
At the Air Force Ground in Palam, Services were trailing by another 403 runs as they reached 74 for two in reply to Baroda's 477 for six declared in the first essay, having resumed at 249 for three.
Shivalik Sharma, resuming at 120 not out, eventually fell for 178 from 394 balls with 10 fours and two sixes while Vishnu Solanki added a few more runs before being dismissed for 125 (297 balls, 10 fours).
Skipper Krunal Pandya made a brisk 86 off 117 balls with eight fours and two sixes while Atit Sheth made 50-ball 53 not out with eight fours.
In another match, Tripura produced a strong recovery after early blows on the rain-hit opening day to reach 346 for six at stumps on the second day.
Sridam Paul hit 146 from 178 balls with 20 fours and two sixes while others in skipper Mandeep Singh (59), S Sharath (54 not out) and Mura Singh (53 not out) provided adequate support from the other end.
For Odisha, Govinda Poddar reached 87 not out as they were 198 for five, trailing by another 72 runs in the first innings Jammu and Kashmir.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai: Maharashtra 126 & 142/1 in 31 overs (Sachin Dhas 59*, Ruturaj Gaikwad 80*; Shardul Thakur 1/27) trail Mumbai 441 in 103.1 overs (Ayush Mhatre 176, Shreyas Iyer 142; Hitesh Valunj 6/134) by 173 runs.
Delhi: Baroda 477/6 decl. in 150 overs (Shivalik Sharma 178, Vishnu Solanki 125, Krunal Pandya 86, Atit Sheth 53*; Poonam Poonia 2/45) lead Services 74/2 in 22 overs (Suraj Vashisht 26*; Atit Sheth 1/15) by 403 runs.
Shillong: Tripura 346/6 in 74.2 overs (Sridam Paul 146, Mandeep Singh 54, S Sharath 54*, Mura Singh 53*) vs Meghalaya.
Cuttack: Jammu & Kashmir 270 lead Odisha 198/5 69.1 overs (Anurag Sarangi 35, Govinda Poddar 87*, Abid Mushtaq 2/52) by 72 runs.
Spinners put Punjab in command, take 70-run first innings lead over Madhya Pradesh
Punjab's spin trio of Mayank Markande, Sukhwinder Singh, and Naman Dhir claimed two wickets each, complementing left arm pacer Gurnoor Brar's impressive 3/36 to give Punjab a crucial 70-run first-innings lead over Madhya Pradesh on day two of their Ranji Trophy Group C clash in Mullanpur on Saturday.
While India left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh went wicketless, returning figures of 0/35 from 14 overs, it was Brar who provided Punjab with a strong start.
The young left-arm quick struck twice in two balls, removing Himanshu Mantri (10) and Subhranshu Senapati (0), leaving MP struggling at 30/2 in 10.5 overs.
Rajat Patidar (90) and skipper Shubham Sharma (61) then steadied the ship for Madhya Pradesh.
Patidar, regaining form after a lean Duleep Trophy campaign, struck three fours and eight sixes, while Sharma supported him well with nine boundaries.
However, young off-spinner Naman Dhir broke the partnership, dismissing both set batters and finishing with superb figures of 6-1-5-2.
Sharma was dismissed for 61 (101 balls), while Patidar fell for 90 (178b), narrowly missing out on a century.
Leg-spinner Markande (2/46 from 12.5 overs) wrapped up the tail, dismissing Avesh Khan and Kulwant Khejroliya, as Madhya Pradesh were bowled out for 207 in 73.5 overs in reply to Punjab's 277.
Off-spinner Sukhwinder Singh also chipped in with 2/47.
Earlier, Punjab's Salil Arora was dismissed without adding to his overnight total on the second ball of the day, as Punjab's first innings lasted just 5.5 overs into day two, adding only 23 runs to their overnight total.
Rain frustrates Bengal
Rain and a wet outfield coupled with a poor drainage system at Kalyani in the northern outskirts of Kolkata resulted in no play for the second consecutive day in Bengal's home match against Bihar, leaving the home side frustrated.
Bengal, who secured three points from their drawn opening match against Uttar Pradesh in Lucknow due to a first-innings lead, now face increased pressure.
Another draw in this match will leave them with a challenging task in the remaining rounds.
To make matters worse, Bengal may be without key players for upcoming fixtures, with batting mainstay Abhimanyu Easwaran, pace spearhead Mukesh Kumar, and wicketkeeper-batter Abhishek Porel likely to be called up for India A's tour of Australia.
In Alur, Sachin Baby held the fort with an unbeaten 23 along with Sanju Samson who was batting on 15 as Kerala were 161/3 against Karnataka in another rain-interrupted day.
Only 27 overs were possible on day two, and Rohan Kunnummal's splendid knock ended at 63. He smashed one six and 10 fours in his 88-ball knock.
Chahal shines with bat
In Lucknow, India leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal delivered a resolute unbeaten 38 from 114 balls after a solid 113-run stand from Dheeru Singh (103; 256b) and Sumit Kumar (61; 191b) as Haryana ended the day on 431 for nine against Uttar Pradesh.
Coming in at No 10, Chahal hit five boundaries as he along with last man Aman Kumar (8; 37b) frustrated UP bowlers in a 35-run unbroken stand.
Brief Scores:
In Mullanpur: Punjab 277; 95.5 overs (Salil Arora 101, Sukhwinder Singh 66; Kulwant Khejroliya 3/58). Madhya Pradesh 207; 73.5 overs (Rajat Patidar 90, Shubham Sharma 61; Gurnoor Brar 3/36).
In Lucknow: Haryana 242/6; 90 overs (Himanshu Rana 114, Dheeru Singh 103, Ankit Kumar 77, Sumit Kumar 61, Yuzvendra Chahal 38 batting; Shivam Sharma 3/91, Vipraj Nigam 3/129) vs Uttar Pradesh.
In Alur: Kerala 161/3; 50 overs (Rohan Kunnummal 63, Sachin Baby 23 batting) vs Karnataka.
Delhi pay price for sub-standard spin attack as TN pile up mammoth 674 for 6
Washington Sundar and Pradosh Ranjan Paul feasted on Delhi's sub-standard spin attack to hit hundreds as Tamil Nadu drowned Delhi under a deluge of runs to take complete control of their Group D Ranji Trophy match at the end of second day.
Tamil Nadu declared their first innings at 674 for 6 and in the remaining time, Delhi reached 43 for no loss in 16 overs with stand-in opener Harsh Tyagi joining Sanat Sangwan after regular opener Dhruv Kaushik split his webbing.
Delhi are also hamstrung by an on-field injury to all-rounder Pranshu Vijayaran and not conceding an innings defeat to Tamil Nadu would be a big achievement for the hosts.
After Sai Sudharsan's (213) double ton on the opening day, his fellow India international Washington Sundar repaid the team management's faith of promoting him to No. 3 as he scored a polished 152 off 269 balls with 19 fours and a six.
Having added 232 for the second wicket with Sudharsan, Washington shared another 92 runs for the fourth wicket with India 'A' batter Paul (117 off 175 balls) while Andre Siddharth also chipped in with an unbeaten 66.
Navdeep Saini (2/78 in 24 overs) was the only bowler who looked like making some kind of difference but questions will be asked about the quality of the two spinners -- left-arm orthodox Tyagi (1/181 in 37.4 overs) and unfit-looking off-break bowler Mayank Rawat (0/194 in 50 overs), who were cut, pulled, driven, swept and lofted to all parts of the Kotla.
In total, the two specialist spinners bowled close to 88 overs and they had only three maidens which showed that they couldn't even check the run-flow, forget about getting breakthroughs.
Tyagi, a former India U-19 spinner was released by Delhi a few seasons back and went to Railways where also he failed to find a footing and was back in DDCA fold since last year.
He has been rewarded for his DPL performance but neither chief selector Gursharan Singh nor head coach Sarandeep Singh looked at specialist red ball spinner Sumit Mathur, who got nine wickets on his debut during the final match of last season.
Both Tyagi and Rawat consistently bowled short and were hammered into submission. With Pranshu Vijayran injured while bowling his sixth over on the opening day, skipper Himmat Singh continued using Rawat even as Tamil Nadu batters made merry.
While Tyagi was hit for 21 boundaries and a six, Rawat conceded 19 hits to the fence plus two maximums. In the outfield, he was sloth and often allowed ones to be converted into twos. One doesn't know what kind of tests senior Ranji team has undergone but Rawat in any top first-class team wouldn't even qualify if fitness is the main criteria.
Brief Scores:
In Delhi: TN 1st Innings 674/6 decl (B Sai Sudharsan 213, Washington Sundar 152, Pradosh Ranjan Paul 117). Delhi 1st Innings 43/0.
In Rajkot: Chattisgarh 1st Innings 578/7 (Amandeep Khare 203 batting, Sanjeet Desai 146, Parth Bhut 2/138, Dharmendra Jadeja 2/118).
In Ahmedabad: Jharkhand 1st Innings 417 (Ishan Kishan 101, Virat Singh 128, Nazim Siddique 96, Himanshu Sangwan 5/94). Railways 1st Innings 19/1.
Deepak Chahar tears into Himachal batting order as Rajasthan enforces follow-on
Rajasthan seamer Deepak Chahar was on a roll as he ripped apart the Himachal Pradesh batting order in the second innings on day two of the Ranji Trophy second round match.
The 32-year-old India player bagged five wickets for 30 runs, as Himachal were shot out for 98 in reply to Rajasthan's first-innings total of 334.
Rajasthan resumed the day at the overnight score of 304/7, with Mahipal Lomror and Arafat Khan at the crease.
Lomror was just 11 runs away from his seventh First-Class hundred at the start of the day but was unlucky to be dismissed on 99 by pacer Rishi Dhawan with Rajasthan at 323 for 9.
Eventually, Rajasthan were bowled out for 334, with Khaleel Ahmed (0) being the last man to fall to spinner Mayank Dagar, who finished with figures of 5/85.
Himachal had an inauspicious start to their first innings, losing the top-four batters in single digits -- Shubham Arora (6), Prashant Chopra (4), Ankit Kalsi (6) and Ekant Sen (0) -- with the scoreboard reading 19/4.
At 51/7, skipper Dhawan managed to stitch a 40-run stand with Arpit Guleria (17) before the latter fell to Aniket Choudhary.
Dhawan and Co were eventually out for 98, with the captain remaining unbeaten on 40. Abhinandan Bhardwaj (10) was the only other player to score in double figures.
Chahar, who managed to get rid of Chopra, Kalsi, Sen, Bhardwaj and Mukul Negi (1), was also duly supported by Choudhary (3/28) and Khaleel (1/15).
Himachal made a solid start after the follow-on with openers Arora and Chopra sewing a 103-run partnership.
Manav Suthar got the vital breakthrough for Rajasthan, getting rid of Arora for 59. Chopra fell to the same bowler 37 runs later, missing his half-century by a run.
The duo of Kalsi and Sen then managed to hold things together for the rest of the day and stayed unbeaten on 30 and 4 respectively at stumps.
The hosts finished the day at 147 for 2. They still trail Rajasthan by 89 runs.
Brief scores:
In Dharamsala: Rajasthan 1st innings: 334 (Mahipal Lomror 99; Mayank Dagar 5/85) lead Himachal Pradesh 1st innings: 98 (Rishi Dhawan 40 not out; Deepak Chahar 5/30) and 2nd innings: 147 for 2 (Shubham Arora 59; Manav Suthar 2/40) by 89 runs.
In Ahmedabad: Gujarat 1st innings: 367 (Chintan Gaja 92, Arzan Nagwaswalla 82 not out; Satyanarayana Raju 3/53) lead Andhra 1st innings: 137 for 5 (KS Bharat 78; Nagwaswalla 1/22) by 230 runs.
In Dehradun: Uttarakhand 1st innings: 325 (Avneesh Sudha 89, Aditya Tare 69; Tanay Thyagarajan 4/85) lead Hyderabad 1st innings: 244 for 5 (Kodimela Himateja 78, Rahul Radesh 82 batting; Devendra Singh Bora 2/51) by 81 runs.
In Puducherry: Vidarbha 1st innings: 283 (Yash Rathod 118, Harsh Dubey 76; Gaurav Yadav 4/65) lead Puducherry 1st innings: 45 for 1 (Akash Kargave 23 batting; Dubey 1/15) by 238 runs.
