With his 25th first-class century, Yuvraj Singh put Punjab in an advantageous position against Madhya Pradesh. Leading from front, he was unbeaten on 164 as Punjab dominated on the first day.
26-year old Railways pacer, Deepak Bansal claimed his maiden four-for, as 13 wickets fell in Bilaspur on the first day of the match.
A Eswaran’s 123 not out helped Bengal off to a good start in their first game of the season against Uttar Pradesh in Jaipur.
In the match between Mumbai and Baroda, Pinal Shah and Yusuf Pathan helped the team to a respectable total even as the Shardul Thakur-led attack struck at regular intervals.
Group A, Round 2 – Day 1 Round-up:
Mumbai vs Baroda in Palam, New Delhi:Baroda 1st inn 286/9 in 83 overs (P Shah 66, Y Pathan 41, V Gohil 3/70, Shardul 2/77) Back in the team, Shardul Thakur claimed Kedar Devdhar with 23 runs on the board after Baroda opted to bat at the Palam ground. While the Mumbai pace attack comprising of Thakur, Balwinder Sandhu, Abhishek Nayar and Tushar Deshpande claimed five wickets amongst them, the young left-arm spinner Vijay Gohil picked three.
While Tushar Deshpande rattled Yusuf Pathan’s stumps to end the blossoming fifth wicket stand between the hard-hitting batsman and Pinal Shah, Gohil followed up with the wicket of Baroda’s top-run-getter of the innings for 66. When play ended for the day, Swapnil Singh was batting with Murtaja Vahora.
Madhya Pradesh vs Punjab in Lahli: Punjab 1st inn 347/3 in 89 overs (Y Singh 164*, G Mann 101*, I Pandey 2/95) With his team on 15 for two, Yuvraj Singh came out to bat in the morning and led them to 347 for three at stumps with an unbeaten 164. The stylish left-hand batsman seized the momentum back from the opposition with some impressive strokes as he shaped the Punjab innings. He built a 180-run partnership for the third wicket with Jiwanjot Singh until the opener was trapped lbw by Ishwar Pandey for 61. The skipper then continued to build on the foundation with Gurkeerat Singh Mann. As he milked the bowlers to set the tone for the match, Yuvraj brought up his 25th first-class century.
As the Yuvraj-Mann pair tipped the balance in their team’s favour, the youngster too posted a century. The duo were involved in an unbroken 152-run partnership at the end of day’s play.
Uttar Pradesh vs Bengal in Jaipur: Bengal 1st inn 288/3 in 88 overs (A Eswaran 123*, S Chatterjee 73, A Rajpoot 3/72) Playing their first game of the season, Bengal elected to field against UP, who have come into the match on the back of a loss. Opening the innings A Eswaran (123*) anchored the Manoj Tiwary-led team to stumps at 288 for three. His opening partner, SS Mandal was the first to return to the pavilion for 30. Easwaran then found able partners in Sudip Chatterjee (73) and Agiv Pan (51) to help the team to a respectable score. The opener was batting with his captain when play ended for the day.
UP’s Ankit Rajpoot claimed all the three wickets that fell on the first day in Jaipur.
Railways vs Tamil Nadu in Bilaspur: TN 1st inn 121/10 in 42.2 overs (M Rangarajan 36*, D Bansal 4/48, M Chaudhary 3/31); Railways 1st inn 87/3 in 36 overs (M Devdhar 47, Vignesh K 1/8) Trail by 34 runs
13 wickets fell in Bilspur as the Deepak Bansal-led attack dismantled the Tamil Nadu lineup on the first day after electing to field. Playing in his second season, the pacer who made his first-class debut with Punjab in 2015 has shifted to Railways in the ongoing season.
Opening the bowling with Anureet Singh, he dealt the first blow with the wicket of MS Washington Sundar, while the experienced senior pacer accounted for Kaushik Gandhi to leave TN for 28. Batsmen continued to succumb to the Railways pace attack. Malolan Rangarajan was stranded on 36 as the team was wrapped up for 121.
Tamil Nadu too lost the openers with just 32 runs on the board. Vignesh K ran out Saurabh Wakaskar and bowled Shivkant Shukla to give his team early breakthroughs.
Cheluvaraj and Arindam Gosh had taken Railways to stumps at 87 for three.
