Deepak Hooda helped the Baroda innings to a comfortable total after losing both openers early in the innings against Punjab on the first day of the ongoing Ranji Trophy match. In a similar situation, Kaushik Gandhi anchored the Tamil Nadu teams to stumps in the match against Madhya Pradesh with an unbeaten 71-run knock.
In the match between Railways and Bengal at Dharamsala 14 wickets tumbled on the first day as pacers ran through the batsmen.
Group A, Round 4 – Day 1 Round-up:
Punjab vs Baroda in Delhi: Baroda 1st inn 358/6 in 90 overs (D Hooda 190*, D Mistry 76, S Sharma 4/64)
Stand-in captain Deepak Hooda went his previous best of 142 as he helped Baroda to a comfortable score until the end of day’s play at the Kotla. Coming in to bat at 11 for two, he anchored the Baroda innings and was unbeaten on 190 at the end of day’s play. After joining forces with No 3 bat, D Mistry (76) to stabilize the innings he continued to hold the innings together in useful partnerships with rest of the lineup.
Sandeep Sharma picked four wickets as Baroda ended the day’s play at 358 for six. The skipper was 10 short of his maiden double century at stumps batting with Swapnil Singh (29*).
Tamil Nadu vs Madhya Pradesh in Cuttack: TN 1st inn 262/4 in 85 overs (D Karthik 95, K Gandhi 71*, B Indrajith 44*, C Sakure 2/47)
After Devendra Bundela elected to field, Ishwar Pandey trapped MS Washington Sundar lbw off the second ball of the day while Abhinav Mukund too was sent back for a duck by Ashwin Das in the second over. Coming to the crease zero for one Kaushik Gandhi joined forces with Vijay Shankar with the team on one for the loss of two wickets in an effort to resuscitate the innings and had taken TN to 54 when the latter was sent back by Chandrakant Sakure.
Gandhi continued to anchor the innings and had found an able ally in Dinesh Karthik (95). The pair worked to lay a solid platform and had taken the team to 198 when Sakure accounted for the wicketkeeper-batsman to end the stand. The top-order bat then stitched a partnership with Baba Indrajith to take the team to stumps at 262 for four.
Gandhi was batting on 71 off 232 balls with Indrajith on 44 as he kept the innings together.
Railways vs Bengal in Dharamsala: Bengal 1st inn 205/10 in 69.5 overs (S Chatterjee 85, A Dinda 30, A Singh 4/66, A Mishra 3/38, K Thakur 2/39); Railways 1st inn 37/4 in 15 overs (M Devdhar 17, A Dinda 2/17, A Kuila 1/8, S Gosh 1/12) Trail by 168 runs
The Railways pacers dominated the proceedings after Karn Sharma opted to bowl in Dharamsala. The Anureet Singh-led attack bowled Bengal out on the first day for 205 runs. He claimed A Easwaran in the fifth over of the innings to give the team their first breakthrough. Then with the team on 62, Bengal lost three wickets in quick succession. After castling Sayan Shekhar Mandal, Amit Mishra sent back Manoj Tiwary and Wriddhiman Saha in his next to tip the balance in favour of Railways.
Anureet Singh and Karan Thakur then ran through the rest of the lineup to bowl them out later in the day.
Wickets continued to tumble in the Railways innings. Ashok Dinda set the ball rolling with by catching Saurabh off his own bowling for four. A Kuila and S Gosh took a wicket each while the pacer himself finished with two wickets in the day as they left Railways struggling in 37 for four at stumps.
Uttar Pradesh vs Gujarat in Palam, New Delhi: Gujarat 1st inn 276/8 in 90 overs (S Gohil 60, PK Panchal 60, P Patel 60, I Ahmed 4/48)
S Gohil (60) and P Panchal (60) got Gujarat off to a good start with a 122-run opening stand after Parthiv Patel elected to bat in the ongoing game. Imitiaz Ahmed ended the opening stand by trapping Panchal lbw and followed up by castling his opening partner a while later. While the Gujarat captain then held up one end, wickets fell at regular intervals at the other. The wicketkeeper-batsman to scored 60 as strove to take the team to a par score until he was sent Dhruv Pratap Singh leaving the team on 217 for five.
I Ahmed picked four wickets as Gujarat finished the day on 276 for eight with Chirag Gandhi (33*) and H Patel in the middle.
