A round-up of all Ranji matches played on Tuesday.
Himachal Pradesh pace bowler Vaibhav Arora grabbed his third five-wicket haul in first-class cricket to restrict Odisha to 191 in their Ranji Trophy Group A match, even as the other two quicks -- Rishi Dhawan and Abhinay -- too played a vital role in demolishing the visitors in Nadaun on Tuesday.
At stumps on day one at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium, Himachal were placed comfortably at 91/2 with dependable opener Prashant Chopra batting at 61 and the hosts exactly 100 runs away from taking the first-innings lead.
Vaibhav, the 25-year-old quick, struck in the ninth over to get rid of opener Anurag Sarangi for six runs and was on target again in the 16th over as he sent back Anshy Rath for three.
With Himachal bowlers striking at regular intervals, Odisha were in dire straits at 85/5 but a fighting half century from Shantanu Mishra (52 off 107 balls) helped them to 160 for eight before the last two wickets fell in quick succession.
Coming in to bat, Himachal opener and prolific run-getter in domestic cricket Prashant Chopra struck a fine half-century -- his 16th in first-class cricket -- and the team's capitulation against Uttarakhand earlier in the Ranji season seemed a distant dream.
Himachal were all out for 49 in the first innings of their Ranji game against Uttarakhand in the third round of matches with the home team bowler Deepak Dhapola returning career-best figures of 8/35 in just 8.3 overs.
The five-wicket loss in that game at Dehradun (Dec 27-30) was the direct result of openers Raghav Dhawan and Prashant Chopra's failure to score big.
But since then, the team has atoned for its batting lapses, which was quite visible in the fourth-round match against Baroda that ended in a draw after Himachal put up a 500-plus total in the first innings. Chopra and skipper Ankit Kalsi had scored fine centuries in that game.
On Tuesday, Chopra was again consolidating the innings, scoring his 61 off 89 deliveries. But the biggest disappointment of the day was skipper Kalsi who departed for a duck.
Earlier, Odisha being restricted to a sub-200 score was owing to the efforts of the three Himachal quicks. While Vaibhav Arora was the wrecker-in-chief, Kanwar Abhinay and Rishi Dhawan too had two wickets apiece as they helped the hosts take the honours on the opening day.
Brief scores:
At Nadaun: Odisha 191 in 50 overs (Shantanu Mishra 52, Prayash Singh 39; Vaibhav Arora 5/51, Rishi Dhawan 2/44, Kanwar Abhinay 2/39) vs Himachal Pradesh 91/2 in 31 overs (Prashant Chopra 61 batting).
At Kalyani: Baroda 222/7 in 81 overs (Jyotsnil Singh 85, Priyanshu Moliya 50; Mukesh Kumar 3/50, Akash Deep 4/67) vs Bengal.
At Rohtak: Nagaland 83/5 in 37 overs (Shrikant Mundhe 30 batting; Harshal Patel Patel 2/23) vs Haryana.
At Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh 29/3 in 21 overs (Deepak Dhapola 2/10) vs Uttarakhand.
Prithvi slams career-best unbeaten 240, Mumbai reach 397/2
Guwahati: Repeatedly ignored across formats in the last 18 months, Prithvi Shaw butchered a hapless Assam attack to submission with a breathtaking unbeaten 240 as Mumbai ended the opening day of Group B Ranji match at a comfortable 397 for two, here on Tuesday.
Shaw has already added 200 runs for the unbroken third wicket partnership with skipper Ajinkya Rahane (73 not out) as Mumbai aim for bonus points against the Eastern state in order to offset the dent caused by their defeat against Saurashtra.
A free-flowing stroke-maker, Shaw hit 33 boundaries and a six in his knock and was severe on each and every bowler at the picturesque Amingaon cricket ground.
The only six was struck over long on fence while he played shots all around the wicket.
There were shots behind the square but some rasping drives through covers, the off drives and clipping the ball through mid wicket and some pull shots were part of his scoring wagon wheel.
His scoring off Assam bowlers had equitable distribution.
In fact, Shaw didn't score off 153 balls out of the 283 he faced on the day. His 240 effectively came off 130 scoring strokes.
Hridip Deka was smashed for 53 off 56 balls that he bowled to Shaw.
Spinner Roshan Alam suffered the most with 76 being scored off his 76 balls.
Shaw in his previous games hadn't accumulated even 200 runs but the kind of talent he is, it was a case of just one innings and he hammered the not-so-bad Assam to all corners of the ground.
The Indian team is current choc a bloc in terms of vacancy across formats but a player of Shaw's quality perhaps can't be kept at bay for too long.
Hanuma crawls at Kotla
In complete contrast to Shaw's innings, another Team India comeback aspirant Hanuma Vihari made a painstaking unbeaten 76 off 202 balls as Andhra scored 203 for 3 against a depleted Delhi bowling attack at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
In fact, young opener CR Gnaneshwar (81 off 158 balls) looked more fluent in biting Delhi cold as off spinner Hrithik Shokeen (1/49 in 13 overs) looked best bowler on view.
Brief Scores:
In Guwahati: Mumbai 1st Innings 397/2 in 90 overs (Prithvi Shaw 240 batting, Ajinkya Rahane 73 batting) vs Assam.
In Delhi: Andhra 1st Innings 203/3 in 74 overs (CR Gnaneshwar 81, Hanuma Vihari 76 batting, Hrithik Shokeen 1/49) vs Delhi.
In Hyderabad: Hyderabad 1st innings 79 in 30.5 overs (Jaydev Unadkat 3/28) vs Saurashtra 1st Innings 250/5 in 54 overs (Harvik Desai 81, Chirag Jani 68, Aniketh Reddy 3/74).
In Pune: Maharashtra 1st Innings: 350/6 (Ruturaj Gaikwad 118 batting, Kerala Jadhav 56, L Vignesh 2/80) vs TN.
Sachin Baby's unbeaten ton in Kerala's fine recovery
Thumba (Thiruvananthapuram): Veteran domestic cricketer Sachin Baby smashed his ninth first-class century as hosts Kerala reached a modest 254 for six on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group C match against Services here on Tuesday.
Sachin came in at a crucial phase of Kerala's innings with the hosts reeling at 4/19 in just the ninth over.
The 34-year-old Sachin, who is nearing the 4,000-run landmark in first-class cricket, played cautiously and took his time to settle down before forging fruitful partnerships with Salman Nizar (42) and Akshay Chandran (32).
At stumps, Sachin was holding fort with skipper Sijomon Joseph, who was unbeaten on 29.
With the two batters firmly set, crossing the 300-plus score in the first session of play on day two will give Kerala the psychological edge.
Earlier, Services quicks Poonam Poonia (2/31) and Diwesh Pathania (2/31) put Kerala in a spot of bother with the two reducing the hosts to 4/19.
Opener Jalaj Saxena was the first to depart for eight runs trapped in front of the wicket, while Ponnan Rahul, after facing 13 deliveries, was dismissed for duck.
Rohan Prem and Vathsal Govind too went cheaply with the two bowlers taking a wicket each.
But from there on Sachin Baby ensured the hosts' recovery, hardly playing any audacious shots and preferring to take the ground route even when he got the opportunity to go for the maximum.
Sachin's cautions approach can be gauged from the fact that he scored only 11 boundaries in his 235-ball stay on day one, with most of his runs coming in singles and twos.
Brief scores:
At Jamshedpur: Jharkhand 103 in 32.1 overs (Pankaj Kumar Rao 3/27, Ravi Kiran 5/42, Vasudev Bareth 2/27) vs Chhattisgarh 95/8 in 43 overs (Avnish Dhaliwal batting 46; Ashish Kumar 3/37, Vikash Singh 3/15, Shahbaz Nadeem 2/41).
At Alur: Rajasthan 129 in 45.3 overs (Karan Lamba 31, Kunal Singh Rathore 33; Vasuki Koushik 4/37, Vijaykumar Vyshak 4/50) vs Karnataka 106/2 in 30 overs (Mayank Agarwal batting 49, Devdutt Padikkal 32; Aniket Choudhary 2/40).
At Thumba: Kerala 254/6 in 90 overs (Sachin Baby batting 133, Salman Nizar 42, Akshay Chandran 32; Diwesh Pathania 2/31) vs Services.
At Porvorim: Goa 223 in 84 overs (Eknath Kerkar 41, Darshan Misal 50 n.o.; Sagar Udeshi 5/76, Abin Mathew 2/45) vs Puducherry 17 for no loss in 4 overs.
MP ride Mantri ton to reach 232/3 against Gujarat
Indore: Reigning champions Madhya Pradesh rode opener Himanshu Mantri's unbeaten century to reach a solid 232 for three at stumps on day one of their Ranji Trophy Group D match against Gujarat here on Tuesday.
This was Mantri's, who also doubles up as the team's wicketkeeper, second century in first-class cricket, and batting on 115 at close of play, he will look to improve upon his best score of 165 on the second day of the elite group match.
Aiding Mantri in his endeavour to help MP take the first day honours was Shubham Sharma, with a 72 off 147 balls at the Holkar Cricket Stadium.
Mantri faced 278 balls to score his runs, hitting 15 fours and a six during his stay in the middle.
Shubham found the fence 14 times during his second-wicket partnership of 150 runs with Mantri, the duo laying the foundation for a big first-innings total for the winners of the last edition of the tournament.
Opting to bat, MP were off to a decent start with Mantri and Yash Dubey adding 56 runs, before the latter was trapped in the front of the wicket by Chintan Gaja in the 17th over.
A big partnership followed as MP went to the tea break at a strong 180 for one.
However, for the addition of 26 runs, MP lost Shubman who was sent back to the dressing room by Shen Patel.
Rajat Patidar failed to live up to the expectations and was dismissed by left-arm spinner Hardik Patel.
Skipper Aditya Shrivastava (11) was giving Mantri company when the stumps were drawn.
Brief scores:
At Indore: Madhya Pradesh 232/3 in 90 overs (Himanshu Mantri 115 batting, Shubham Sharma 72) vs Gujarat.
At Mohali: Jammu and Kashmir 146/6 in 33 overs (Abdul Samad 46, Vivrant Sharma 41; Siddarth Kaul 3/58) vs Punjab.
At Chandigarh: Vidarbha 6/0 in 3 overs vs Chandigarh.
At Surat: Tripura 96 all out in 49.3 overs (Bikramkumar Das 35; Akash Pandey 4/18, Karn Sharma 3/15) vs Railways 126/1 in 38 overs (Shivam Chaudhary 60 batting, Pratham Singh 56 batting).
