Ranji Trophy round-up: Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai shine on opening day

It was an eventful beginning to India’s premier cricketing competition on Thursday.

From Siddesh Lad slogging it out for Mumbai in the Delhi pollution with a mask to Rajat Patidar’s hundred against Tamil Nadu, from Manoj Tiwary’s fighting fifty to Chetan Bist’s 146 against Jammu and Kashmir, the day witnessed a lot of action all across the matches in the three groups as players looked to make a mark for their respective state associations.

Mumbai was lifted by the Siddesh-Suryakumar duo who took them to 278/5 at the end of the day’s play. Suryakumar fell 17 short of a deserved hundred but it was Siddesh, who held on and remained unbeaten on 80, looking to make an impact on the second day as well.

The duo shared a 129-run stand that helped the Ranji Trophy heavyweights reach to decent figures at the end of the day after stumps were called early due to bad light. After Suryakumar’s dismissal, all-rounder Shivam Dubey came up with 35 runs and shared a 48-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Siddesh.

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In Group B, Madhya Pradesh managed to tackle the threat posed by Ravichandran Ashwin and his variations as Patidar stroked his way to an unbeaten knock of 110 to help Madhya Pradesh end their day on 214/3.
Losing Ankit Dane in the very second over did little or no help to the visitors who were resurrected with a 124-run partnership between opening batsman Aryaman Birla (51) and Patidar. Despite Ashwin’s dangerous off-spin bowling on a spinning track in Dindigul, the duo held their ground and managed to put up a fight which eventually gave his team the edge at the end of the day’s play.

Brief scores:

Group A: Mumbai 1st Innings 278/5 (Siddhesh Lad 80 batting, Surykumar Yadav 83, Anureet Singh 3/55 in 22 overs) vs Railways.

Saurashtra 1st Innings 282/3 (Cheteshwar Pujara 30, Harvik Desai 78, Snell Patel 91) vs Chattisgarh

Baroda 1st Innings 290 (Deepak Hooda 63, Siddharth Desai 5/109). Gujarat 15/0.

Maharashtra 1st Innings 284/6 (Chirag Khurana 89) vs Vidarbha.

Group B:

Brief scores: Madhya Pradesh 214 for 3 in 89 overs (Rajat Patidar 110, Aryaman Vikram Birla 51) vs TN.

At Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala 231 for 4 in 85 overs

(Sachin Baby 57 batting, Jalaj Saxena 58, Sanju Samson 53) vs Hyderabad.

At Amtar: Bengal 266 for 6 in 90 overs (Manoj Tiwary 55, Anustup Majumdar 53, Abhishek Kumar Raman 48, RR Dhawan 2 for 34) vs Himachal Pradesh.

At Vizag: Punjab 261 for 6 in 90 overs (Sanvir Singh 63 batting, Mandeep Singh 68, Shubman Gill 56, B Ayyappa 3 for 64) vs Andhra Pradesh.

Group C: Rajasthan 300/3 (Chetan Bist 146 batting, Ashok Menaria 45 batting, Umar Nazir 2/74) vs Jammu and Kashmir.

Jharkhand 266/6 (Nazim Siddiqui 72, Utkarsh Singh 63 batting) vs Assam

Odisha 232/6 (Anurag Sarangi 114, Mohit Sharma 2/44) vs Haryana

Uttar Pradesh 153/1 (Madhav Kaushik 83 batting, Mohammed Saif 54 batting).

Image credit- The Indian Express