Priyank Panchal continued his rich vein of form with another century as he became the first player from Gujarat to score 1000 runs or more in a season.
The previous highest is Parthiv Patel’s 895 in the 2012-13 season. Panchal also became the first player during this Ranji season to cross the 1000-run mark.
His 113-run knock was his third century in as many games. Panchal has been in red-hot form this season having already scored a double and a triple hundred so far.
Panchal’s effort saw Gujarat post 267 for seven on day one of their final Group A Ranji Trophy clash against Tamil Nadu in Belgavi on Wednesday.
A unbeaten 153-run 8th wicket stand between Kuldeep Yadav and Saurabh Kumar help Uttar Pradesh hammer the Baroda bowlers to get to 360/7 at the end of day one. Goa’s Sagun Kamat and Chhattisgarh’s Amandeep Khara also scored tons while Andhra skittled out Hyderabad for 190 in Lucknow.
Uttar Pradesh’s tail rescues day against Baroda
In another Group A game, Uttar Pradesh rode on an unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 153 between Saurabh Kumar (85 not out) and Kuldeep Yadav (77 not out) to post 360 for 7 after struggling on 207 for 7 at one stage against Baroda in Nasik.
Meanwhile in Rajkot, Mumbai’s Shardul Thakur celebrated his recall to the Indian side by scalping two wickets against Punjab. Part-timer Suryakumar Yadav picked up two wickets right at the end to bring Mumbai back in the game after Punjab’s Uday Kaul (86) and Mandeep Singh (78) adding 138 runs for the third wicket. At stumps, Punjab were 216 for four.
Over at Palam Grounds in Delhi, Bengal made 185 for 4 against Madhya Pradesh. Half centuries by Abhimanyu Easwaran and Shreevats Goswami rescued Bengal who had lost four wickets for just 88.
18 wickets fall in a day at Vadodara
In a Group B clash in Vadodara, as many as 18 wickets fell on day one. Delhi medium-pacers Sumit Narwal and Pradeep Sangwan scalped four wickets apiece to bowl out Saurashtra for a paltry 92. Saurashtra though gave back in kind as they restricted Delhi to 194 for eight at stumps.
Delhi need an outright win to clinch a playoff spot and will hope to capitalise on a good start on the opening day.
In Mohali, Maharashtra’s hopes of clinching an outright win to secure a knockout position took an early beating as Karnataka’s Vinay Kumar picked up his third five-wicket haul of the season to bowl out the opposition for 163.
Vinay Kumar breaks Ranji record
Vinay Kumar’s effort saw also him leapfrog Madan Lal’s tally of 351 wickets to become the leading wicket-taker among seamers in the Ranji Trophy. Karnataka ended the day at 67 for one.
Play was curtailed in Noida due to ‘inclement conditions’. The first ball was bowled only after the lunch break. The short span though was enought for Vidarbha to bowl out Rajasthan for 140. Aditya Sarwate finished with figures of 3/22. Vidarbha were 14 for no loss when stumps were drawn.
Brief scores:
Haryana 231 (Chaitanya Bishnoi 52, Mohit Sharma 39 not out; Manishankar Murasingh 3/53, Sanjay Majumder 3/53) lead Tripura 70/4 (Bishal Ghosh 36; Harshal Patel 2/8) by 161 runs
Punjab 216/4 (Uday Kaul 86, Mandeep Singh 78; Shardul Thakur 2/44, Suryakumar Yadav 2/3) vs Mumbai
Uttar Pradesh 360/7 (Kuldeep Yadav 77 not out, Saurabh Kumar 85 not out; Babashafi Pathan 3/84) vs Baroda
Bengal 185/4 (Abhimanyu Easwaran 68 not out, Sreevats Goswami 52 not out; Chandrakant Sakure 2/33) vs Madhya Pradesh
Gujarat 267/7 (Priyank Panchal 113; Baba Aparajith 2/29, T Natarajan 2/62) vs Tamil Nadu
Rajasthan 140 (Manender Singh 27; Aditya Sarwate 3/22, Shrikant Wagh 2/23) lead Vidarbha 14/0 (Faiz Fazal 9 not out) by 126 runs
Andhra 190 (Pranith Manyala 63, Ashwin Hebbar 52; Chama Milind 5/28, Ravi Kiran 4/33) lead Hyderabad 10/0 (Akshath Reddy 9 not out) by 180 runs
Goa 260/6 (Sagun Kamat 104; Bipul Sharma 2/37, Mayank Dagar 1/44) vs Himachal Pradesh
Chhattisgarh 217/6 (Amandeep Khare 106; Samiullah Beigh 4/56) vs Jammu & Kashmir
Services 103/4 (Anshul Gupta 52 not out; Athif Bin Ashraf 3/35) vs Kerala
Saurashtra 92 (Prerak Mankad 33, Snell Patel 26; Pradeep Sangwan 4/25, Sumit Narwal 4/27) trail Delhi 194/8 (Rishabh Pant 40, Pradeep Sangwan 39 not out; Kushang Patel 4/59) by 102 runs
Maharashtra 163 (Rohit Motwani 32, Swapnil Gugale 25; Vinay Kumar 5/46, Sreenath Aravind 2/32) lead Karnataka 67/1 (R Samarth 33 not out, Mir Kaunan Abbas 30 not out; Anupam Sanklecha 1/24) by 86 runs