A round-up of Ranji Trophy matches played on Friday
Dubey, Deshpande put Mumbai in control vs Railways
All-rounder Shivam Dubey's smashing hundred complemented by pacer Tushar Deshpande's late evening burst saw Mumbai gain an upper-hand over Railways on the Day 2 of their Ranji Trophy group A encounter in New Delhi on Friday.
After Siddhesh Lad (99) missed out on a hundred, Dubey (114) struck his maiden century in only his second first-class game as Mumbai scored 411 in their first essay.
The Railways were down in the dumps at 115 for 6 as Deshpande (3/29 in 11 overs) struck a double blow with the semi-new ball.
Dubey on his part took a wicket while senior seamer Dhawal Kulkarni also got a wicket.
For Railways, senior pro Arindam Ghosh is at the crease having crawled his way to 39 off 115 deliveries at stumps.
At the start of the day, Lad, who hit a couple of boundaries to reach into the 90's was bowled by left-arm spinner Avinash Yadav with a just a run required for his coveted three-figure mark. Lad faced 189 deliveries and hit 14 boundaries.
However, left-handed Shivam played a counter-attacking knock, hitting 13 fours and four sixes in 139 balls.
He was severe on the spin troika of Harsh Tyagi (4/83), Avinash Yadav (3/99) and Madhur Khatri (0/77 in 17 overs).
Dubey shared a 56-run seventh wicket stand with skipper Kulkarni (22) and then upped the ante alongside tail-enders to get his side past the 400-run mark.
He was the ninth batsman to be dismissed after Tyagi found a nick which was pouched by rival skipper Mahesh Rawat.
Nicely warmed up after his hundred, Dubey then came on as first-change bowler and removed opener Saurabh Wakaskar (22) after Deshpande and Kulkarni got rid of Nitin Bhille and PS Singh respectively.
Reduced to 62 for 4, Rawat (30) and Ghosh added 49 runs for the fifth wicket before Deshpande struck twice at the fag end of the day.
Brief Scores of Group A matches
Mumbai 1st Innings 411 (Shivam Dubey 114, Siddhesh Lad 99, Suryakumar Yadav 83; Harsh Tyagi 4/83) vs Railways 115/6 (Arindam Ghosh 39 batting; Tushar Deshpande 3/29).
Saurashtra 1st innings 475 (Sheldon Jackson 147, Snell Patel 91, Harvik Desai 78, Cheteshwar Pujara 56; Mohd Shahnawaz 4/97) vs Chhattisgarh 1st Innings 88/0 (Sahil Gupta 51 batting)
Baroda 1st innings 290 (Yusuf Pathan 69; Siddharth Desai 5/109) vs Gujarat 1st Innings 264/6 (Samit Gohil 63, Rujul Bhatt 70; Bharghav Bhatt 3/69)
Maharashtra 1st Innings 343 (Chirag Khurana 89, Rahul Tripathi 73; Aditya Sarvate 3/51) and 46/0 vs Vidarbha 120 (Wasim Jaffer 27; Satyajit Bachchav 3/3, Samad Fallah 2/21).
Group B: Ashwin, Mohammed help TN restrict MP to 393
Rajat Patidar missed out on a well-deserved double century by four runs, but helped Madhya Pradesh make 393 against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group B Match in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu on Friday.
Test spinner R Ashwin and paceman M Mohammed finished with four wickets each to help TN restrict Madhya Pradesh from posting a huge total.
The home team was zero for no loss in two overs at stumps on Day 2.
Resuming at the overnight score of 214 for 3, Patidar forged another useful partnership with Shubham Sharma (43) to put the team in a strong position.
However, things went awry after the exit of Sharma as they slid from 317 for 4 to 393 all out.
Shubham Sharma was snapped up by wicket-keeper N Jagadeesan off Rahil Shah's bowling following which Patidar and Yash Dubey (6) added 42 runs.
Patidar defied the Tamil Nadu bowlers like he did on Thursday.
He slammed 17 fours and a six in his 406-ball knock.
He fell caught behind off Mohammed's bowling.
Mohammed and Ashwin took over after the exit of Patidar to engineer a collapse.
Ashwin snapped the last three wickets to fall (Avesh Khan, Ishwar Pandey and Kuldeep Sen) to finish with 4 for 85 from 38.4 overs.
Mohammed ended with 4 for 98.
Tamil Nadu openers, Murali Vijay and Abhinav Mukund negotiated two overs from the MP bowlers before bad light ended play.
Brief scores of Group B matches
Madhya Pradesh 393 in 157.4 overs (Rajat Patidar 196, Aryaman Vikram Birla 51, Naman Ojha 45; R Ashwin 4 for 85, M Mohammed 4 for 98) vs TN 0 for no loss.
At Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala 495 for 6 declared in 164 overs (Sachin Baby 147, V A Jagadeesh 113 not out, Jalaj Saxena 58, Sanju Samson 53; Saketh 3 for 110) vs Hyderabad 1 for no loss in 1 over.
At Amtar: Bengal 380 all out in 116.1 overs (Manoj Tiwary 55, Anustup Majumdar 52, Abhishek Kumar Raman 48; PP Jaswal 5 for 81, RR Dhawan 2 for 56) vs Himachal Pradesh 124 for 3 in 43 overs (A K Bains 79 batting; Ashoke Dinda 2 for 25).
At Vizag: Punjab 414 all out in 156.2 overs (Sanvir Singh 110, Mayank Markande 68 not out, Mandeep Singh 68, Shubman Gill 56; B Ayyappa 3 for 78, Karn Sharma 3 for 115) vs Andhra
Pradesh 54 for 3 in 26 overs.
Group C: Rajasthan poised for first innings lead against J&K
Wicket-keeper batsman Chetan Bist's 159 helped Rajasthan post a competitive 379 in their Elite Group C Ranji Trophy game against Jammu and Kashmir in Jaipur on Friday.
After Bist's heroics with the bat, Rajasthan bowlers reduced Jammu and Kashmir to 186/7 at stumps on day 2, with the visitors trailing by 193 runs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
Rajasthan began the second day at 300/3 but slumped to 379 all out courtesy a stunning hat-trick by 30-year-old pacer Mohammed Mudhasir, who returned with fine figures of 5-90.
Stumper Bist slammed 24 fours in his 294-ball knock, which ended after being trapped in front of the wicket by Mudhasir. He added only 13 runs to his overnight score.
After dismissing a well-set Ashok Maneria for 59, Mudhasir took four wickets in as many balls in the 99th over.
First the pacer dismissed Bist and later accounted for the wickets of Tajinder Singh Dhillon, Rahul Chahar and T M Haq, as Rajasthan slumped from 4-329 to 8-330.
On Friday, Mudhasir was ably supported by Rohit Sharma (2-69), while Umar Nazir had grabbed two wickets while skipper Parvez Rasool picked a wicket on Thursday.
For J&K, Rasool played a handy knock of 47, while Shubham Khajuria and Paras Sharma chipped in with identical scores of 40.
Brief Scores of Group C matches:
At Jaipur: Rajasthan 379 all out (Chetan Bist 159; Mohammed Mudhasir 5-90) against Jammu and Kashmir 186/7 (Parvez Rasool 47; T M Haq 3-59, Rahul Chahar 3-59)
At Bhubaneswar: Odisha 324 all out (Anurag Sarangi 114, Shantanu Mishra 71) vs Haryana 239/3 (Himanshu Rana 113 batting, Chaitanya Bishnoi 75).
At Agartala: Tripura 360 all out (Bishal Ghosh 201) vs Services 136/3 (Aanshul Gupta 62).
At Ranchi: Jharkhand 344 all out (Anukul Roy 80, Utkarsh Singh 76) vs Assam 126/2 (Gokul Sharma batting 49, Sibsankar Roy batting 47).
At Kanpur:Goa 152 all out (Darshan Misal 43, Sagun Kamat 41; Shivam Mavi 4-25) vs Uttar Pradesh 473/3 (Aksh Deep Nath 155 not out, Mohammed Saif 126).
Milind hits double ton as Sikkim eye maiden win in Ranji Trophy
Sikkim rode on Milind Kumar's sensational 261 to inch closer to a big win over Manipur in their debut Ranji Trophy Plate group match in Kolkata on Friday.
Starting at overnight personal score of 202, the former Delhi batsman's marathon innings came to an end after an hour's play on the day after being trapped by Manipur captain Yashpal Singh with the team posting a huge 372.
In reply, Manipur were shot out for 79 in 28 overs with Gujarat recruit Ishwar Chaudhary claiming four for 37, while Bipul Sharma (3/17) accounting for three wickets.
Following on, Manipur showed restraint in their second essay as they were 132 for 2 with Lakhan Rawat (62 batting) and skipper Yashpal Singh (48 batting) at the crease.
However it's still a big ask for Manipur to avoid an innings defeat as they still need 170 runs to make Sikkim bat again.
The Sikkim scorecard looked unusual as seven batsmen had single digit scores, three managed to get to double digits but Milind's knock that accounted for more than 70 per cent of the runs, made all the difference.
Milind has been around since 2011 when he made his first-class debut for Delhi.
He had a dream debut, scoring 119 in the first innings against Haryana at the Roshanara Ground in Delhi.
However, over the course of seven years, Milind has only managed 29 first-class games, with a second century and six fifties to go with his maiden double.
At the Nagaland Cricket Stadium in Sovima, Karnataka import Arbar Kazi followed up his fine show with his off-spinners (4/20) with a unbeaten maiden double hundred to put Nagaland in sniffing distance of a win against Mizoram.
In reply to Mizoram's 106, Nagaland declared their first innings at 530 for 8 with Kazi sharing a 149-run partnership with Mughavi Wotsa (58).
Skipper Jonathan Rongsen and Imliwati Lemtur (50) also scored half-centuries.
At close on day two, Mizoram were 16 for 2 in their second essay still trailing by 408 runs.
Brief Scores Plate group:
In Kolkata:Sikkim 372 in 112.2 overs (Milind Kumar 261, Bipul Sharma 45; Shelley Shaurya 4/39, Rex Singh 3/97) vs Manipur 79 in 28 overs (Ishwar Chaudhary 4/37, Bipul Sharma 3/17) and 123/2 in 34 overs (Lakhan Rawat 62 batting, Yashpal Singh 48 batting).
In Dehradun: Bihar 60 and 169 in 50.5 overs (Sunny Kashyap 4/51, Deepak Dhapola 3/48) vs Uttarakhand 227 in 71.3 overs (Karanveer Kaushal 91, Saurabh Rawat 63; Ashutosh Aman 4/34, Samar Quadri 3/77) and 4 for no loss.
In Shillong: Arunachal Pradesh 166 in 64.3 overs (Samarth Seth 50; Gurinder Singh 5/50, Lakhan Singh 3/38) and 104/6 in 41 overs (Kshitiz Sharma 41; Abhay Negi 3/29) vs Meghalaya 141 in 40 overs (Jason Lamare 70; Licha Tehi 3/31, Subhash Sharma 3/47, Sandeep Thakur 3/19).
In Dimapur: Mizoram 106 and 16/2 vs Nagaland 530/8 declared in 117.2 overs (Arbar Kazi 200, Jonathan Rongsen 72, Mughavi Wotsa 58, Imliwati Lemtur 50).
