Assam pacer, Arup Das claimed seven wickets to push Saurashtra on backfoot when play eventually began in the match in Kolkata. Shreyas Gopal and Sreenath Aravind helped bowl Karnataka to a first innings lead against Vidarbha.
SF Khan scored his maiden century against Odisha to lift Team Rajasthan to a par score and put the team in an advantageous position. In the run fest at Trivandrum, Jharkhand’s Ishan Kishan registered his double century while Rishabh Pant slammed 107* off 84 balls for Delhi to keep the match evenly balanced.
Group B, Round 5 – Day 2 Round-up:
Assam vs Saurashtra in Kolkata: Saurashtra 1st inn 121/9 in 43 overs (J Unadkat 31, A Das 7/39, K Das 2/31)
While there was no play possible on Day 1 at the Eden Gardens, Arup Das rattled the Saurashtra lineup after the match started later in the second day. The pacer left the opposition reeling on 39 for six after Assam elected to field in the fifth round match. He claimed Avi Barot and Amitoze Singh in the first over to leave the team on zero for two in three balls. 22 runs later, he sent back Sheldon Jackson and with the team on 32 accounted for Jaydev Shah and Arpit Vasavda off successive balls. He also sent back Sagar Jogiyani while Krishna Das accounted for Chirag Jani and Deepak Punia.
Then in an effort to keep the innings afloat, Jaydev Unadkat and Dharmendra Jadeja took the team to 107 until Arup struck again to send back the latter. When play ended for the day, Unadkat (31*) and Shaurya Sanandia(8*) had taken Saurashtra to 121 for nine.
Team Rajasthan vs Odihsa in Patiala: Team Raj 1st inn 323/10 in 105.4 overs (SF Khan 110, G Podder 3/59); Odisha 1st inn 143/8 in 45 overs (D Behera 49*, A Choudhary 4/34, P Singh 2/51) Trail by 180 runs
Debutant SF Khan helped Team Rajasthan to a solid total with his maiden century. Batting with the lower-order, the youngster shouldered the responsibility to help the team past the 300-run mark with a determined batting display. After they resumed the innings on 249 for five, C Bist was sent back by S Pradhan for 28 leaving the team on 270 for six. Alok Mangaraj then followed up with the wicket of TM Ul Haq while SF Khan’s 203-ball stay at the crease was ended by Govind Podder. The spinner then accounted for Pankaj Singh in his next over with the team still on 311. After 12 runs, Pradhan bowled AV Choudhary to wrap-up the innings for 323.
The bowlers then put Rajasthan in an advantageous position until stumps. Aniket Choudhary and skipper Pankaj Singh then ran through the Odisha lineup to leave them wobbling on 127 for eight. While the left-arm pacer picked four wickets, the captain took two and TM Ul Haq and RD Chahar picked a wicket each.
While wickets tumbled, Deepak Behera toiled to keep the innings from folding. The lower-order bat was on not out on 49 with Dhiraj Singh on 2 when play ended for the day. At stumps Odisha were 143 for eight and trailing by 180 runs.
Delhi vs Jharkhand in Trivandrum: Jharkhand 1st inn 493/10 in 119.4 overs (I Kishan 273, S Bhati 3/80, Milind 2/66); Delhi 1st inn 225/3 in 55 overs (R Pant 107*, U Chand 89*, A Singh 1/8) Trail by 268 runs
Young middle-order bat, Ishan Kishan notched up his maiden double-ton as he helped Jharkhand set up a solid total against Delhi. The middle-order batsman added 111 runs to his overnight score before being sent back by Subodh Bhati. After Jharkhand resumed their innings on 359 for six, Milind dealt a double blow in the 11th over of the day to leave the opposition on 404 for eight. The off-spinner accounted for Shahbaz Nadeem and Sunny Gupta off successive deliveries. With Vikash, Kishan then extended the innings to 489 until Parvinder Awana sent back the latter. Four runs later, the middle-order bat was the last batsman to get out; sent back by Bhati for 273.
Delhi then lost three wickets early in the innings and were left reeling on 74 for three. However, stand-in captain Unmukt Chand and Rishabh Pant then shaped the innings with a 151-run unbroken stand. Pant, who has been in superlative form this season struck yet another century. When play ended for the day, the left-hand bat was on 107 with the opener batting on 89 to keep the match evenly poised.
Vidarbha vs Karnataka in Vadodara: Kar 1st inn 267/10 in 77 overs (K Gowtham 60*, R Uthappa 46, Lalit 5/67, R Thakur 3/54); Vid 1st inn 176/10 in 66.4 overs (J Sharma 61, S Gopal 3/22, A Sreenath 3/27, V Kumar 2/57); Kar 108/3 in 24 overs (R Samarth 45*, M Pandey 35, Lalit 2/60) Lead by 199 runs.
After Stuart Binny gave Karnataka their first breakthrough by disrupting SR Ramaswamy’s stumps to leave Vidarbha on 35 for one, Arvind Sreenath followed up with three more to leave the opposition reeling on 57 for four. R Jangid and J Sharma joined forces to revive the innings and had taken the team to 151 when Shreyas Gopal struck to end the stand and wickets continued to fall in a heap.
The spinner accounted for Jangid and followed up with the wicket of A Sarvate. While Shrikant Wagh was run out for zero by Vinay Kumar, Shreyas caught J Sharma off his own bowling. The Karnataka pacer, who is back at the helm of the team then claimed A Wakhare and Lalit to bowl Karnataka to a 91-run first innings lead.
Until stumps of Day 2, R Samarth had anchored the team to 108 for three thus extending the lead to 199 runs. While Lalit claimed Mayank Agarwal and Manish Pandey, Wagh accounted for Robin Uthappa. Remaining not out on 45, Samarth then saw the team through to the end of day’s play with allrounder Binny.
