The opening day of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals saw a dominant display of bowling across four matches on Saturday. Kerala pacer MD Nidheesh bagged a five-wicket haul to restrict Jammu & Kashmir to 228/8 at stumps at the MCA Stadium in Pune. Kerala won the toss and invited J&K to bat first. The batting side had a poor start as Nidheesh removed the top three in the opening session to leave the side reeling at 48/3. However, Kanhaiya Wadhawan first stitched a brief 19-run partnership with captain Paras Dogra, who was removed by Basil Thampi, before adding a 55-run stand with Sahil Lotra. Wadhawan departed after scoring 48 as Nidheesh got his fourth wicket of the day.
Lotra and Lone Nasir steered J&K’s innings further and took them to over 150-run mark. The former played a gritty knock of 35 off 125 balls before losing his wicket to Aditya Sarwate. In the final session of the day, Nidheesh completed his five-wicket haul with the scalp of Nasir, who made a vital contribution of 44 in the late middle order.
Abid Mushtaq also made a crucial 19-run addition to the scoreboard before he became a victim of Thampi. J&K will look to add some runs to their overnight total as Yudhvir Singh and Auqib Nabi resume their innings from 17 and five runs, respectively. In the other quarterfinal clash between defending champions Mumbai and Haryana at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, Shams Mulani’s counter-attacking 91 overshadowed pacer Anshul Kamboj’s 3-58.
Opting to bat first, Mumbai were reduced to 94/6 as Kamboj and Sumit Kumar made the most of moving new ball. Mumbai lost their in-form opener Ayush Mhatre on the first ball of the match by Kamboj followed by Sumit removing the other opener Akash Anand for 10 in the sixth over. Mumbai didn’t get time to recover from the early hiccups as Kamboj removed Siddhesh Lad (4) before Sumit got hold of Suryakumar Yadav (9) to cause panic in the defending champions camp.
After a brief partnership between captain Ajinkya Rahane and Shivam Dube, Ajit Chahal removed the latter to put Mumbai under pressure. Rahane’s (31) cautious stay at the crease was brought to an end by Kamboj to bag his final wicket of the day, leaving Mumbai reeling at 94/6. Anuj Thakral caught and bowled Shardul Thakur (15) to take total control of the match. However, Mumbai’s lower-order batting depth came to their rescue as Shams Mulani and Tanush Kotian a massive 165-run partnership for the eighth wicket.
Mulani scored 91 studded with 10 boundaries before being removed by Jayant Yadav. Kotian remained unbeaten on 85 runs laced with 11 fours as Mumbai reached 278/8 in 78.3 overs at the stumps.
The quarterfinal match between Vidarbha and Tamil Nadu was highlighted by Karun Nair’s unbeaten century that was studded with 14 fours and a six combined with Danish Malewar’s 75 decorated with 13 fours after the former opted to bat first in Nagpur. The home side finished for 264/6 at stumps with Vijay Shankar bagging two scalps.
In the other knockout match in Rajkot between Saurashtra and Gujarat, the latter dominated the opening day’s play.
Gujarat won the toss and invited Saurashtra to bat first, a move that received the support of bowlers as pacer Chintan Gaja returned with the figures of 4-48 to bundle out the opponents for 216 in 72.1 overs. Despite opener Chirag Jani’s 69, Saurashtra failed to reach a big total as Arpit Vasavada remained unbeaten on 39 but received no support from the other end.
In reply, Gujarat were 21/0 at the stumps with opener Priyank Panchal and Aarya Desai unbeaten on 11 and 10 runs, respectively.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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