N Shaikh shaped the Maharashtra innings after the early loss of openers against Team Rajasthan with his first century in first-class cricket. In the match in Mumbai after A Sreenath pushed Assam on the wicket with three wickets upfront, Amit Verma brought his team back into the reckoning with an unbeaten century. The match between Delhi and Odisha is evenly poised while Jharkhand pacers set up the match against Vidarbha by bundling the opposition out for meager total.
Group B, Round 4 – Day 1 Round-up:
Delhi vs Odisha in Mohali: Odisha 1st inn 237/10 in 77.4 overs (S Senapati 76, B Samantray 62, V Sood 3/23, S Narwal 2/34, M Sharma 2/52); Delhi 1st inn 43/0 in 10 overs (G Gambhir 26*, U Chand 13*) Trail by 194 runs
Electing to field first, Delhi bowled Odisha out for 237 runs. Sumit Narwal claimed both the openers to leave Odisha on 15 for two early in the innings. 44 runs later, Vikas Tokas and Nitish Rana picked wickets of successive overs to leave the opposition on 59 for four. However, Subranshu Senapati and Biplab Samantray revived the innings with a solid fifth wicket partnership until Ishant Sharma accounted for the former to leave the team on 200 for five. The senior middle-order bat followed him back to the pavilion four runs later and wickets continued to crumble after he returned to the pavilion. With V Sood claiming three wickets and S Narwal and M Sharma picking two wickets each, Odisha were bowled out for 237.
In reply, Unmukt Chand and Gautam Gambhir had taken Delhi to stumps at 43 without loss.
Team Rajasthan vs Maharashtra in Hyderabad: Maha 1st inn 280/3 in 88 overs (N Shaikh 118*, A Bawane 83, P Singh 2/38)
Team Rajasthan skipper, Pankaj Singh claimed M Trunkwala for six early in the innings while TM Ul Haq accounted for Swapnil Gugale to leave Maharashtra on 22 for two after electing to bat. However, NS Shaikh posted his maiden century as he took the team to stumps with an unbeaten 118-run knock. With Ankit Bawane he stabilized the innings, taking them to 217 until the middle-order bat was sent back by the Team Rajasthan captain.
He then joined forces with R Tripathi to take the team to stumps on 280 for three.
Assam vs Karnataka in Mumbai: Assam 268/6 in 90 overs (A Verma 125*, S Purkayastha 56*, A Sreenath 5/49)
After A Sreenath claimed the top three Assam batsmen to leave the team tottering on 16 for three in the morning, left-hand bat Amit Verma shaped the innings with a patently compiled century. Forming useful partnerships with the batsmen to follow, he helped the team to a comfortable 268 for six until stumps and seize the momentum in Assam’s favour.
Verma was batting on 125 (off 259 balls) with S Purkayastha on 56 when play ended for the day. A Sreenath claimed five for 49 while Stuart Binny was the only other bowler to pick a wicket during the day’s play.
Jharkhand vs Vidarbha in Wayanad: Vidarbha 1st inn 105/10 in 42 overs (JM Sharma 21, Vikash 4/24, Ajay 3/28, Ashish Kumar 2/36); Jharkhand 1st inn 146/1 in 43 overs (P Singh 80*, A Singh 58*, R Gurbani 1/28) Lead by 41 runs
The Jharkhand pace trio – Vikash Singh (four wickets), Ajay (three wickets) and Ashish Kumar (two wickets) wrecked the Vidarbha lineup after electing to field. After Vikash set the tone with the wicket of Faiz Fazal with 11 runs on the board, they bowled Vidarbha out for a paltry 105.
Building on the advantage set up by their bowlers, the Jharkhand batsmen took their team to 146 for one until stumps. Although they lost Virat Singh in the second over, Anand Singh and P Singh took the team to a comfortable position at the end of day’s play.
