Shreyas Iyer continued with his red-hot form, smashing a stroke-filled 233 to lead Mumbai to a massive 602 for four declared in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match against Odisha in Mumbai on Thursday. Iyer’s second consecutive ton in Ranji Trophy also turned out to be his highest score in first-class cricket as the right-hander hammered Odisha all around the park at a strike rate of nearly 103. Iyer’s knock was well complimented by comeback man Siddhesh Lad’s 169 not out, who hit 17 fours in his 337-ball innings.
Mumbai added another 217 runs to their overnight score of 385 for three with Iyer and Lad putting on an overall 354 runs for the fourth wicket – now a record for the 42-time winners in the Ranji Trophy.
Home spinners Shams Mulani (2/52) and Himanshu Singh (2/22) then provided crucial breakthroughs to reduce the visitors to 146 for five.
Odisha are still trailing by another 456 runs in the first essay and have Sandeep Pattanaik (73 not out) and Debabrata Pradhan (7) at the crease.
Shardul Thakur provided an early breakthrough when he cleaned up the Odisha opener Swastik Samal for a seven-ball duck.
Odisha recovered strongly as Anurag Sarangi and Pattanaik put on 107 for the second wicket until the former was cleaned up by lanky spinner Himanshu Singh.
Soon after, Mulani had Odisha skipper Govinda Poddar (0) caught behind and Himanshu had Biplab Samantaray (0) caught by Ajinkya Rahane at first slip.
In Pune, Maharashtra slipped to 185 all-out against Services’ 293 in the first innings as the visitors took a big 108-run lead in the first innings at the MCA Stadium.
Services were 15/0 in second essay, with an overall lead of 123 runs.
After Hitesh Walunj’s five for 103 helped Maharashtra restrict Services, Amit Shukla returned 7/65 as the hosts were bowled out for 185 despite skipper Ankit Bawane’s 73.
At Shillong, visitors Jammu and Kashmir were 16 for one and needed another 59 runs to win after hosts Meghalaya folded for another low score of 195 in the second innings, setting a target of 75 to win.
J&K, who had shot Meghalaya out for a mere 73 in the first innings, made 194 in reply to take a 121-run lead.
At Agartala, hosts Tripura were placed strongly at 192 for one in reply to Baroda’s 235 in the first innings.
Bikram Kumar Das (97) fell short of his century but Jiwanjot Singh (58 not out) and Tejasvi Jaiswal (34 not out) took them to 192 for one, trailing by another 43 runs.
Shorey’s hundred puts Vidarbha in command against Himachal
Opener Dhruv Shorey compiled a neat century as former champions Vidarbha responded strongly to reach 283 for two at stumps after bowling out Himachal Pradesh for 307 on day two of their Ranji Trophy match in Nagpur on Thursday.
Shorey, who switched to Vidarbha ahead of the 2023-24 season after playing for 10 years for his native state Delhi, led the way for Vidarbha and was batting on 108 at close of play.
Karun Nair, who parted ways with Karnataka to join Vidarbha last season, was unbeaten on 76.
The duo of Shorey and Nair added 142 runs for the third wicket to put Vidarbha in a commanding position as they now trail Himachal by just 24 runs.
Vidarbha began on a solid note with Shorey and Atharva Taide (33) putting on 50 runs for before Mukul Negi gave Himachal their first breakthrough by having the latter trapped in front of the wicket.
Shorey found an able ally in Danish Malewar as the two added 91 runs for the second wicket to lay a strong foundation for Vidarbha.
Medium pacer Vaibhav Arora brought some cheer for Himachal as he dismissed Malewar for a 72-ball 59, during which the batter struck 10 boundaries.
However, Himachal’s joy was short-lived as Shorey and Nair handled the Himachal bowlers without much difficulty to lift their team to a position of strength by the end of day’s play.
Shorey, who faced 192 balls for his knock, hit only six fours and ran a lot of singles and twos during his stay in the middle.
Malewar on the other hand, found the fence 10 times during his 72-ball knock. Shorey’s two partnerships, with Nair and Malewar, went a long way in helping Vidarbha take the upper hand in the Elite Group B game.
Earlier, resuming the day on 263 for six, Himachal added 44 runs to their overnight total before being bowled out in their first innings.
Overnight batting on 47, captain Rishi Dhawan was the chief contributor with the bat for Himachal as he top-scored with a 73-run knock that came off 135 balls.
Mukul Negi, the other overnight batter, fell for 38 while the last three men could not contribute anything with the bat for Himachal Pradesh.
Left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey was the most successful bowler for Vidarbha, returning figures of 5/71 in 34 overs, while there were two wickets apiece for Praful Hinge (2/57) and Akshay Wakhare (2/42).
Group C: Manohar”s unbeaten fifty keeps Karnataka afloat against Bengal
Abhinav Manohar made a determined unbeaten fifty to rescue Karnataka after a top-order collapse, taking the hosts to 155 for five against Bengal after second day’s play of their Ranji Trophy Group C match in Bengaluru on Thursday.
Manohar made 50 off 73 balls (6×4, 1×6) and added 58 runs for the unbroken sixth wicket stand with Shreyas Gopal (23 batting) as Karnataka recovered from a wobbly 97 for five.
Karnataka still trail by 146 runs.
Bengal, resuming from overnight 249 for five, could not progress much and got bowled out for 301.
Pacer Vasuki Koushik (5/38) and leg-spinner Shreyas (3/87) combined to pluck the remaining five Bengal wickets for 52 runs.
But that joy was short-lived as Bengal bowlers Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal (2/53) and R Vivek (2/44) rocked the Karnataka top-order with regular strikes.
In fact, the home side lost their most experienced batters – captain Mayank Agarwal (17) and Manish Pandey (0) – in the space of six balls.
Agarwal was cleaned up by Jaiswal while Pandey’s two-ball innings was snapped by Vivek.
However, Karnataka found some fight through Manohar, a white ball specialist, and Shreyas, who returned to the state side after spending last season with Kerala, as they negated 18 overs to keep their side afloat.
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