Prashant Chopra’s terrific unbeaten knock of 271 saw Himachal Pradesh post a mammoth 459/2 at stumps on day one of their group D Ranji Trophy encounter at Dharamsala. After opting to bat first, Chopra along with skipper Sumeet Verma added 187 runs as Punjab bowlers looked clueless against Himachal batsmen. Paras Dogra remained unbeaten on 99.
Chopra also entered the record books with his efforts, accumulating the highest individual runs accumulated in a single day’s play by an Indian batsman in 67 years. Bhausaheb Nimbalkar, during his epic knock of 443 for Maharashtra in 1948-’49, had scored 277 runs in a single day.
Delhi skipper Ishant Sharma shone with the ball with three wickets while debutant Kulwant Khejroliya impressed with his pace as Delhi restricted Assam to 224/7 at stumps on the first day of the Group A match at the capital. Ishant (3/31), leading Delhi for the first time, marshalled his resources well on a benign Kotla track that didn’t have much to offer.
Khejroliya was hitting the deck hard and getting deliveries to rear up awkwardly where some of the others couldn’t get it above knee roll at times.
Meanwhile, Bengal were in cruise control as Sudeep Chatterjee struck a patient unbeaten hundred, ending the day’s play at 341/3 against Services on a placid track in Delhi. Vice-captain Chatterjee was unbeaten on 114 and added 153 runs for the third wicket with skipper Manoj Tiwary (69) and another 63 for the unbroken fourth wicket stand with Wriddhiman Saha (32*).
Bengal started the day with Abhishek Raman (40) and Abhimanyu Easwaran (65) adding 97 runs for the opening stand. Chatterjee, who has been regularly playing for India A, hit 11 boundaries in his 182-ball knock. Captain Tiwary was positive in his approach hitting six fours and two sixes in 97 balls.
Prerak Mankad (68) and Sheldon Jackson (51) scored half-centuries as Saurashtra reached 271/7 at stumps against Haryana at Rohtak on the opening day of their Group B encounter. At the close of play, Jaydev Unadkat was batting on seven.
Opting to bat, Saurashtra lost opener Snell Patel (17) early, but the other opening batsman KM Parmar (35) along with India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara (35) put on 55 runs together for the second wicket. But both Parmar and Pujara were dismissed before the team reached the 100-run mark. Although Jackson and Mankad played responsible knocks, Saurashtra kept losing wickets at regular intervals with Ashish Hooda returning with figures of four for 59.
At the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Andhra Pradesh bowlers restricted a formidable Tamil Nadu to a modest 176. Middle-order batsman Baba Aparajith was the top-scorer with a patient knock of 51 while the others capitulated in the face of disciplined bowling from the visitors on what seemed to be a good wicket.
Left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt took four wickets and was instrumental in putting the brakes on the hosts along with left-arm medium-pacer Prithvi Raj Yarra, who took three wickets. The big guns in the Tamil Nadu line-up, M Vijay and skipper Abhinav Mukund failed to get going after the winning the toss and electing to bat.
Brief scores
- Assam 224/7 (Gokul Sharma 51, Sarupam Purkayastha 57*, Ishant Sharma 3/31) vs Delhi
- Railways 182 (Ashish Yadav 53, Nitin Bhille 42; Ankit Rajpoot 3/30, Zeeshan Ansari 3/78) vs Uttar Pradesh
- Saurashtra 271/7 (Prerak Mankad 68, Sheldon Jackson 51; Ashish Hooda 4/59) vs Haryana
- Jharkhand 200/9 (Ishan Kishan 45; Jalaj Saxena 6/50) vs Kerala
- Rajasthan 249/4 (Robin Bist 105, Ashok Menaria 69; Mohammed Mudhasir 3/66) vs Jammu and Kashmir
- Tamil Nadu 176 (Baba Aparajith 51, K Vignesh 25*, Bhargav Bhatt 4/52, Prithvi Raj Yarra 3/ 39) lead Andhra Pradesh 8/0 by 168 runs
- Madhya Pradesh 268/5 (Devendra Bundela 99, Shubam Sharma 88*, Harpreet Singh Bhatia 32, A Sheth 2 for 51) vs Baroda
- Bengal 341/3 (Sudeep Chatterjee 114*, Manoj Tiwary 65, Wriddhiman Saha 32*) vs Services
- Himachal Pradesh 459/2 (Prashant Chopra 271*, Paras Dogra 99*) vs Punjab
- Chattisgarh 189/5 (Mohammed Kaif 49*, Darshan Misal 2/15) vs Goa