The Ranji Trophy is back on track and it has started with an impact. With Knockouts being played at Bengaluru, the four quarter-final matches are being played simultaneously starting from July 6, today. Let’s take a look at how the teams look at Day 1 stumps.
Bengal vs Jharkhand
Jharkhand chose to field.
(At Stumps Day 1)
Bengal (89 ov) 310/1
Jharkhand
It seems like the only thing Jharkhand had in their favor was the toss result. The team on winning the toss elected to bowl first. In answer to that, Bengal openers were ruthless with the bat as they hit it off quite hard. Abhishek Raman and the captain Abhimanyu Easwaran started off with a great opening partnership. Unfortunately, Raman had to go back to the pavilion retired -hurt at a score of 41. Young Sudip Kumar Gharami replaced him and it was a sight of one kind. Soon Abhimanyu got out on 65 with the team losing its first wicket at 132 which brought Anustup Majumdar in the middle. The duo went on to hit more runs for Bengal. Sudip made his maiden hundred in First-Class cricket and is playing at 106 (204 balls) while Anustup is at 85 (139 balls). Jharkhand clearly had a bad day in the middle as they could only take 1 wicket and were hit for runs at a seemingly fast pace. They will hope to recover tomorrow.
Punjab vs Madhya Pradesh
Punjab chose to bat
(At Stumps Day 1)
Punjab 219
Madhya Pradesh (1 ov) 5/0
M. Pradesh trail by 214 runs.
A good day of bowling is what will define match Day 1 between MP and Punjab. Punjab on winning the toss elected to bat first. Puneet Datey struck early as he got Shubhman Gill out on just 9 in the 4th over. After building a couple of partnerships, it looked like Punjab couldn’t really gather themselves after they lost Anmolpreet Singh and captain Abhishek Sharma who scored 47 runs each. Only Sanvir Singh could score a decent total of 41 after that as all the batters got out quite easily not adding much to the scoreboard. The team got all out at 219. Puneet and Anubhav from MP got 3 wickets each helped Madhya Pradesh to start their first innings on Day 1 itself as they trail by 214 runs
Mumbai vs Uttarakhand
Mumbai chose to bat.
(At Stumps Day 1)
Mumbai (86 ov) 304/3
Uttarakhand
Looking at the score we can figure out that Mumbai owned the day today. Starting from the toss, they made a good decision to bat first. With a team filled with superstars already, we saw Prithwi Shaw and Yashasvi Jaiswal in action. The duo did not have the best start as Shaw lost his wicket at 21 and Jaiswal got out at 35. From there on Armaan Jaffer and young debutant Suved Parkar had a good 100-run partnership before Dhapola got a breakthrough for Uttarakhand. The team from there went on to score another 128 runs before day 1 stumps. Suved made his maiden hundred on his debut and is currently at the crease playing 104 with Sarfaraz Khan who is at 69. Deepak Dhapola was the only wicket-taker for Uttarakhand as he went on to take all 3 wickets for his team. The Mumbai looks stable at 304 and we may see more runs coming tomorrow. Uttarakhand is in desperate need of wickets.
Karnataka vs Uttar Pradesh
U. Pradesh chose to field.
(At Stumps Day 1)
Karnataka (72 ov) 213/7
Uttar Pradesh
It was a good day of cricket at KSCA Cricket Ground in Alur at we saw both bat and ball do the talking. Karnataka batting first did not have the best day in the middle after losing the toss. The team lost experienced Mayank Agarwal quite early at just 10 runs. His partner Ravikumar Samarth had a good inning but couldn’t convert his 50 into a hundred as he got out on 57. The team lost a couple of wickets but the partnership between Manish Pandey and Siddharth helped them to build a good score. With most batters contributing with 20-30 odd runs it looked like a team effort that made Karnataka reach a 200+ score. For Uttar Pradesh, it was a day for young bowlers who made it difficult for an experienced team like Karnataka to score runs at a pace they would have liked to. Saurabh Kumar took 4 wickets while Shivam Mavi took 3 to help their team. UP will hope to take the remaining wickets soon and start building up a good total, early on in Day 2.
