A round-up of the first day’s play of the seventh-round matches of the Ranji Trophy Super League, 2007-08
Cricinfo staff25-Dec-2007
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M Vijay and Abhinav Mukund added 127 for the first wicket, but Tamil Nadu collapsed thereafter to finish the first day at 250 for 9 © Cricinfo Ltd
Tamil Nadu lost nine wickets for 123 runs at the Chepauk as Delhi made a spirited fightback after the openers had added 127. Chetanya Nanda triggered the collapse with three wickets in 13 deliveries, while Rajat Bhatia and Pradeep Sangwan followed up on the act with two wickets apiece.Earlier M Vijay and Abhinav Mukund had given Tamil Nadu yet another good start as they made Delhi wait for 39 overs for the first breakthrough. The half-centuries the two scored were Vijay’s third and Mukund’s fourth score in excess of 50 this season. But after the first wicket, the highest partnership Tamil Nadu managed was 28 runs for the sixth wicket.
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Piyush Chawla and Tanmay Srivastava missed maiden centuries as Uttar Pradesh finished the first day in Hyderabad at 293 for 6. After Tanmay lost his opening partner Rohit Prakash in the first over, he anchored the first half of UP’s innings. He shared stands worth 61 and 80 with Suresh Raina and Mohammad Kaif respectively and then became part of a mini middle-order collapse as 141 for 2 became 168 for 5. He scored 81, three less than his previous best.Chawla and Amir Khan stemmed the collapse and added 112 for the sixth wicket, Chawla taking charge and scoring a career-best 82 off 130 balls. Amir, the sedate partner, ended the day unbeaten on 44 off 119 deliveries.
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Bengal bowled Andhra out for 121 at Eden Gardens to give themselves a hope of getting a bonus point and avoiding relegation. They ended the day at 46 for 1, 75 behind Andhra. Rana Chowdhary, the left-arm medium bowler playing his second match, took four wickets in 6.2 overs to rattle the Andhra batsmen. Ranadeb Bose took three wickets and SS Paul chipped in with two.Andhra’s batting never got going as the 39-run eighth-wicket stand was the highest partnership, and B Sumanth, the No. 7, was the top-scorer with 30.
ScorecardIn a relegation face-off match, Himachal Pradesh wasted a good start to lose nine wickets for 121 runs and get bowled out for 280 against Rajasthan in Dharamsala. Before the collapse, Mukesh Sharma and Hemant Dogra had kept Rajasthan completely out of the game with a 127-run second-wicket stand. Mukesh went on to score his first first-class century, but saw the rest of the batsmen fall at the other end. Mukhesh, 101, was the ninth wicket to fall. Dogra scored his personal best with 71.Shamsher Singh dismissed the two of them, while Mohammad Aslam and Sumit Mathur took three wickets apiece for Rajasthan.Karnataka 2 for 0 trail Maharashtra 276 (Khadiwale 96, Mohan 51, Vinay Kumar 4-66) by 274 runs
Scorecard Maharashtra, who looked well placed for a big total against Karnataka, collapsed to be bowled out for 276 in Ratnagiri. From 210 for 3, they lost the last seven wickets for 66, as Harshad Khadiwale missed out on his second century of the season. A quick half-century by Dhruv Mohan took Maharashtra to the eventual 276.Maharashtra had made six changes to their side; three of the in-coming players being debutants, while Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Sairaj Bahutule, Salil Agharkar and Kedar Jadhav were dropped.For Karnataka, D Vinay Kumar and NC Aiyappa did most of the damage, taking four and three wickets respectively.
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Led by the dour Shitanshu Kotak and fluent Cheteshwar Pujara, Saurashtra ground the Mumbai bowlers and lost only two wickets for 202 on the first day at the Wankhede Stadium. To make matters worse for Mumbai, none of the two was done with by stumps: Kotak was unbeaten on 73, Pujara on 61.Kotak came in to bat in the fourth over of the day and spent an even six hours in the middle. Pujara, the leading run-getter in Ranji trophy so far, crossed fifty for sixth time in the season and is six short of 800 runs from the season.Mumbai employed seven bowlers, but only Murtuza Hussain met success, ending the day with figures of 2 for 32 from 19 overs.
ScorecardThe Baroda lower order recovered well after Orissa, led by Basanth Mohanty, had reduced them to 81 for 6. They ended the day at 241 for 9, thanks to useful contributions from Pinal Shah, Abhimanyu Chauhan, Sankalp Vohra and Sumit Singh.Shah and Chauhan started the comeback with a 55-run seventh-wicket partnership. After Chauhan fell for 35, Rajesh Pawar fell quickly too, but Shah and Vohra added 27 for the ninth wicket. Shah got out for 44. The unbeaten last-wicket partnership of 71 between Vohra and Sumit was Baroda’s highest. Vohra ended the day on 45, and Singh, the No. 11, on 29. These are career-best scores for Chauhan, Vohra and Sumit.For Orissa Basanth Mohanty continued his impressive first season with 4 for 55.