A round-up of the second day’s play of the fourth-round matches of the Ranji Trophy Super League, 2007-08
Cricinfo staff02-Dec-2007
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M Vijay scored an unbeaten 230 to put Tamil Nadu in a position of strength against Saurashtra © Cricinfo Ltd
In Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh’s Vikramjeet Singh Malik and Ashok Thakur stunned Delhi to bowl them out for 75, after having themselves scored a creditable 343. Malik took 6 for 25, a personal best, and Thakur 4 for 45 as ten Delhi batsmen failed to make it to double digits, and Gautam Gambhir top scored with 13. Malik and Thakur were the only two bowlers used by Himachal as it took them 23.3 overs to wrap up Delhi’s first innings.Following on, Delhi scored more than half their first-innings total in four overs without any damage, as captain Virender Sehwag hit seven boundaries in his 19-ball 31.Earlier, Paras Dogra and Maninder Bisla carried on their consolidation job for Himachal; they added 99 runs for the sixth wicket. After Bisla got out for an even fifty, Dogra found company in Sarandeep Singh and the two added another 85 for the seventh wicket. Dogra was the ninth wicket to fall, for 81.
ScorecardM Vijay continued to torment the Saurashtra bowlers to finish unbeaten on 230 and K Vasudevadas scored a whirlwind century as Tamil Nadu’s declared at 531 for 2. The Tamil Nadu bowlers responded as Vijaykumar Yo Mahesh, P Amarnath and R Ramkumar took a wicket each to leave Saurashtra struggling at 28 for 3. Runs were scored only off Yo Mahesh, as Amarnath bowled four overs and Ramkumar two without a run being taken.Resuming on 129, Vijay started from where he had left off on Saturday and added 101 runs. He was helped by quick scoring from the other end – an 82-ball 61 by S Badrinath and then a 114-ball 103 by K Vasudevadas. Apart from Sagar Jogiyani and Kanaiya Vaghela, Saurashtra brought on every player to bowl, but only Sandip Maniar and Rakesh Dhurv had success.
ScorecardNiranjan Behera score his first first-class century to take Orissa to an important first-innings lead against Hyderabad. Behera ended the day unbeaten on 102 to take Orissa eight runs ahead with seven wickets in hand. The other four Orissa batsmen got starts as well, with the lowest individual score being 24. Pinninti Jayachandra scored a quick 29 towards the end of the day and remained unbeaten along with Behera. Rashmi Parida, the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman, scored 44 to add 90 runs for the third wicket.Earlier Hyderabad added 39 to their overnight 201 for 8 as Debasis Mohanty and Sourabha Sehgal added a wicket each to their overnight tally of four and three wickets respectively.
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Anustup Majumdar and Arindam Das missed by six runs what would have been their second double-century opening stand of the season, but they left Bengal in a commanding position, ten runs behind Punjab’s 231 and with nine wickets in hand. Earlier Bengal had taken Punjab’s last three wickets for 31 runs to dismiss them for 241.Majumdar missed his century by one run, while Das ended the day seven short. The first-wicket stand lasted 63.3 overs as Punjab bowlers struggled for discipline, bowling 16 no-balls and giving a total of 27 runs through extras. VRV Singh bowled 10 no-balls and a wide in his 14 overs.
Brothers of destruction: Yusuf Pathan took five wickets and Irfan three to bowl UP out for 209 © Getty Images
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The Pathan brothers wrecked Uttar Pradesh’s batting to help Baroda end the second day in firm control of the game. UP were bowled out for 209, a first-innings lead of 125. Yusuf was the more successful Pathan as he returned figures of 21.3-7-31-5, his third five-for in this season. Irfan played the support role with three wickets for 63.After UP had collapsed from 65 for 1 to 99 for 6, Suresh Raina staged a brief fightback in unison with Mohammad Amir Khan. But once Raina fell for 55, with the team score at 185, UP’s didn’t offer any resistance.Baroda played out the four overs before stumps without much incident.
ScorecardYogesh Takawale scored his first first-class century and with Kedar Jadhav took Maharashtra past 450 before Mumbai scored 113 for 2, thanks to an unbeaten half-century by Ajinkya Rahane.Takawale and Jadhav resumed their overnight partnership and took it to 146 runs before Jadhav missed out on a maiden century – he fell short by 19. Takawale followed him back, but by then he had scored 126 to put Mumbai on the back foot. Abhishek Nayyar took 5 for 100 for Mumbai.In reply, Rahane and Sahil Kukreja made a solid start, but Mumbai lost two quick wickets to be reduced to 77 for 2. Rahane and Muzumdar, though, batted sensibly after that and took Mumbai to stumps without any further damage.
ScorecardRobin Bist, Rajasthan’s right-hand middle-order batsman, missed what would have been a maiden first-class century by one run, as his team put up a challenging 393 runs before dismissing three Karnataka batsmen for 118. Bist, resuming on 62, went past his previous best of 69 and shepherded the tail to take the score to 334 for 8, when he got out hooking Vinay Kumar. Pankaj Singh and Mohammad Aslam then added 52 for the ninth wicket to further frustrate Karnataka bowlers. But for Sunil Joshi’s 6 for 83, things could have been much worse for Karnataka.Robin Uthappa started positively for Karnataka, but his dismissal for 55 triggered a collapse as three wickets fell for 36 runs.
