The second round of Ranji Trophy group matches are underway around the country. Here’s a round-up of the action from day 2 across the four groups.

Group A: Ishant Sharma shines again

Ishant Sharma loed cut above rest on a docile track as Railways were reduced to 58 for five after Manan Sharma’s maiden ton enabled Delhi reach 447 on the second day of a Ranji Trophy group A encounter in New Delhi on Sunday.

In his fifth first class season for Delhi, left-handed Manan scored 136 off 216 balls and then took 2 for 18 in 11 overs with his accurate left-arm orthodox spin to put Delhi in driver’s seat. On a track, where Railway pacers could hardly work up pace, Delhi skipper Ishant’s very first delivery saw left- handed Saurabh Wakaskar (0) failing to get his bat down in time with his stumps rattled.

Ishant (11-6-12-3) then got one to straighten that had No. 3 Nitin Bhille squared up and Dhruv Shorey completing a regulation catch in the slip cordon. The Railways batsmen found Ishant’s pace too hot to handle as they repeatedly got rapped on the pads. He bowled in two spells and got the ball to reverse in the second spell removing the dogged Shivakant Shukla (29 off 99 balls) with one that left him and the edge was taken by Shorey at second slip.

Buoyed by his hundred, Manan then got wickets of Arindam Ghosh (5) and Abhishek Yadav (1) with arm balls leaving Railways tottering by the end of the day.

Earlier, Manan in company of Pulkit Narang (55 off 183 balls) added 117 runs for the seventh wicket to play out the entire first session of the second day.

In the other match, centuries by opener Ravikumar Samarth and Krishnappa Gowtham helped Karnataka reach 427 for 6 and secure a 282-run lead at the end of day two in the Ranji Trophy Group “A” match against Assam in Mysore.

At close of play, Gowtham was batting on 147 while Shreyas Gopal was on 38. Assam was bowled out for 145 in 59.1 overs on the opening day. Gowtham, who bagged four wickets earlier, hammered 10 boundaries and six sixes in his 158-ball knock and was involved in century stands with Stuart Binny and Shreyas Gopal. Samarth made a well-compiled 123 in 234 balls, studded with 10 boundaries.

Group B: Sir Jadeja shines with the bat

Out-of-favour for the limited overs squads, Ravindra Jadeja struck a timely double century while slow left-arm spinner Dharmendra Jadeja picked up three wickets as Saurashtra reduced Jammu and Kashmir to 103/4 in their first innings in reply to 624/7 declared in a Ranji Trophy Group B match in Rajkot on Sunday

Resuming at overnight score 428 for four, Saurashtra added another 196 runs with the loss of three more wickets before declaring their innings. Jadeja made 201 runs off 313 balls with the help of 23 fours and two sixes, while Snell Patel faced 167 balls for his 94 that was studded with 14 hits to the fence.

Chirag Jani (21) and Dharmendra Jadeja (40) were two not out batsmen when skipper Cheteshwar Pujara declared the innings. For Jammu and Kashmir Ahmed Bandey (25) and Shubham Khajuria (41) started cautiously, putting on 50 runs for the opening wicket. Hower Dharmendra Jadeja struck thrice, removing Bandey, Pranav Gupta (0) and Ian Dev Singh (6) to reduce Jammu and Kashmir to to 67 for three.

Ravindra Jadeja removed Khajuria in the last over of the day as the visitors are still trailing Saurashtra by 521 runs.

Group C: Washington Sundar on song for TN

M S Washington Sundar’s brilliant, unbeaten 156 and his big opening partnership with skipper Abhinav Mukund (76) helped Tamil Nadu seize the initiative on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Group “C” match against Tripura in Chennai on Sunday.

Tamil Nadu ended the day at 332 for 2, a lead of 74 runs in response to Tripura’s 258 riding on Sundar’s maiden first-class ton which included 14 fours and one six. He has batted for 223 balls so far. Washington Sundar opened for Tamil Nadu in place of Murali Vijay, who is sitting out the game due to a neck spasm.

Earlier, the home team wrapped up the Tripura innings for the addition of just 14 runs to the overnight score of 244 for 7. K Vignesh took two of the three wickets to fall to finish with four for 41. R Ashwin got the other to finish with two wickets for 64.

Tamil Nadu began their reply in a positive manner with Mukund and the young Sundar scoring briskly. The two left-handers took the attack to the Tripura bowlers and took advantage of some pedestrian stuff.

The two openers went on the offensive in the post-lunch session and at one point hammered 32 runs in three overs. Sundar hit Tripura skipper Mani Shankar Mura Singh for three boundaries in one over.

Group D: Bengal on top

Pacers Mohammed Shami and Ashoke Dinda blew away the Chattisgarh top-order with incisive spells after Bengal scored a mammoth 529 for 7 on the second day of the Ranji Trophy group D encounter in Raipur.

Courtesy Sudeep Chatterjee’s (118) second hundred in as many games along with veteran Anushtup Majundar’s quickfire (70 off 88 balls), Bengal managed to surpass 500-run mark in their second successive game of the season. With a cushion of runs under their belt, Chattisgarh were reduced to 80 for 5 with Shami (2/33 in 9 overs) and Dinda (2/6 in 6 overs) rattling the hosts with pace and swing.

Earlier, Chatterjee scored his 10th hundred and also completed 3000 runs in first-class cricket in his 43rd game. His 118 off 191 balls had 12 boundaries before he was trapped leg before by Shubham Singh.

Skipper Manoj Tiwary (36) and Wriddhiman Saha (27) also did not score too many but Anushtup in company of B Amit (50, 66 balls) added 120 runs in 25.2 overs before Tiwary decided to have a go at the home team for 31 overs.

Brief Scores

Group D:

Bengal 1st Innings 529/7 (Koushik Ghosh 114, Sudeep Chatterjee 118, Abhishek Raman 94, Anushtup Majumdar 70) Chattisgarh 80/5 (Mohd Shami 2/33, Ashoke Dinda 2/6)

Punjab 161. Vidarbha 419/5 (Sanjay Ramaswamy 161, Ganesh Sathish 126)

Goa 255. Himachal Pradesh 356/4 (Ankush Bains 143, Priyanshu Khanduri 117).

Group C:

Tripura 258 all out (Smit Patel 99, K Vignesh 4 for 31) vs Tamil Nadu 332 for 2 in 81 overs (M S Washington Sundar 156 batting, Abhinav Mukund 76, Baba Indrjith 73 batting).

At Vadodara: Baroda 373 all out in 128 overs (Swapnil Singh 88, A Sheth 70 not out, Vishnu Solanki 61, B Ayyappa 4 for 69) vs Andhra Pradesh 190 for 2 in 46 overs (G Hanuma Vihari 71 batting, Ricky Bhui 53 batting, K S Bharat 40).

At Indore: Madhya Pradesh 409 in 144.3 overs (Naman Ojha 180, Ankit Sharma 67, Akash Parkar 4 for 70) vs Mumbai 130 for 1 in 33 overs (Jay Bista 89 batting).

Group B:

Saurashta 624 for 7 decl in 135 overs (Ravindra Jadeja 201, Sheldon Jackson 181, Snell Patel 94; Waseem Raza 3/164) vs Jammu and Kashmir 103 for 4 in 46.5 overs (Shubham Khajuria 41, Parveez Rasool 23 not out; Dharmendra Jadeja 3/36).

At Nadiad: Kerala 208 all out in 66.5 overs vs Gujarat 307 for 9 in 106 overs (Chirag Gandhi 91 not out, Samit Gohel 69; MD Nidheesh 3/58).

At Jaipur: Rajasthan 423 all out in 141.5 overs (Tajinder Singh 134 Amit Kumar Gautam 107; Sunny Gupta 3/76) vs Jharkhand 97 for two in 31 overs (Saurabh Tiwary 56 not out; Aniket Choudhary 1/16).

Group A:

Delhi 1st innings: 447 (Manan Sharma 136, Nitish Rana 89, Anuj Rawat 74, Pulkit Narang 55, Anureet Singh 4/92) Railways 1st Innings: 58/5 (Ishant Sharma 3/12, Manan Sharma 2/18).

At Mysore: Assam 144 in 59.1 overs (Gokul Sharma 55; Shreyas Gopal 3/43) vs Karnataka 404/6 in 110 overs (Krishnappa Gowtham 129 not out, Ravikumar Samarth 123; Swarupam Purkayastha 3/80).


At Hyderabad: Hyderabad vs Uttar Pradesh. No play on day two.