Young Yash Dhull had a tough initiation into first-class captaincy as Delhi wilted under overcast conditions to be bowled out for 191 before Ishant Sharma-led pace attack left Maharashtra reeling at 80 for 5 on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group B match, in Pune Tuesday. While the sun did peep in time and again but the ball nipped around a fair bit throughout with pacers Manoj Ingale (5/43), Rajvardhan Hangargekar (3/58) and Ashay Palkar (2/67) bowling fast and full in the corridor to cause the damage.
Delhi, though, had started off well with senior opener Dhruv Shorey (41) and Anuj Rawat (24) adding 54 runs for the first wicket before Maharashtra drew first blood.
Palkar bowled deliveries that moved in the air and straightened after pitching in as batters were forced to jab at the deliveries.
Ingale, in fact, brought the ball back into the left-handers as both Rawat and veteran Vaibhav Rawal were bowled through the gate.
In case of Dhull, his former India U-19 teammate Hangargekar got one to rear from back of length as he tried to drive on the backfoot.
There was no footwork and he tried to only use his hands and the ball flew to the slip cordon where Kaushal Tambe did the rest of the job.
Hangargekar also got the prized scalp of IPL specialist Nitish Rana, who edged one behind after looking ill at ease in bowler-friendly conditions.
Himmat Singh (49) played some audacious pull shots and also hit a beautiful down the ground six but was also caught napping in the corridor of uncertainty.
When Maharashtra batted, Simarjeet Singh (2/16) quickly got rid of Pavan Shah (3) and Kaushal Tambe (0) before Ishant Sharma (1/21)bowled a delivery to Rahul Tripathi, that he had often bowled during his heydays to the best in the world.
It was fast and full angled on the off-stump and Tripathi pushed hard at it to give Lalit Yadav a regulation catch in the third slip. Ishant though seemed to gained a bit of weight having been out of competitive cricket for a long time.
Debutant Mayank Yadav also bowled at a brisk pace and got a wicket while Dhull’s acrobatic fielding accounted for a run-out off the last ball of the day.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand spin twins Shahbaz Nadeem and Utkarsh Singh shared five wickets between them as Kerala failed to convert their strong start to be 276 for six on day one of their group C Ranji Trophy match in Ranchi.
Left-arm spinner Nadeem took the key wickets of Sanju Samson (72) and Rohan Kunnummal (50) en route to 3/108, while off-spinner Singh ended the dogged resistance of Rohan Prem (79 off 201 balls) in his 2/43 as Jharkhand seized some late momentum going into the second day.
Promising opener Kunnummal, who recently got an India ‘A’ call-up for the Bangladesh tour, continued his fine form to slam one six and five boundaries in his 71-ball 50.
He and Rohan Prem put on a strong opening stand of 90 after electing to bat.
But Nadeem gave the breakthrough, trapping Kunnummal LBW at the score of 50, as Kerala went on to lose three wickets for the addition of eight runs on either side of lunch break.
Prem was at his resolute best but Singh cleaned him up just after the tea break. Samson took control of the proceedings after Prem’s departure in a partnership with Akshay Chandran.
But Nadeem once again triggered the collapse dismissing Samson to break their 33-run partnership. They went on to lose another quick wicket with Jalaj Saxena being run-out for zero.
Chandran (39 batting) and Joseph (28 batting) were in the middle at stumps after a 51-run unbroken partnership.
On the other hand, Meghalaya bowlers, led by Rajesh Bishnoi (4/62), wrecked havoc but Taruwar Kohli produced a captain’s knock of 123, while Shreevats Goswami chipped in with a splendid 74 to push Mizoram to 252 on day one of their Ranji Trophy plate group match in Nadiad.
Opting to bowl, Megahalya new ball bowlers Abhishek Kumar (2/37) and Akash Choudhary (2/40) blew away the top-order to reduce Mizoram to 8 for 3 inside four overs.
But thereafter, it was skipper Taruwar who took charge of the proceedings in an entertaining fourth wicket partnership with Goswami that yielded 136 runs.
Taruwar hit 15 fours in his 250-ball knock, while the left-handed Goswami smashed eight fours en route to a 122-ball 74 to drive Mizoram forward.
Left-arm spinner Bishnoi then triggered the collapse after he had Goswami LBW. Taruwar fell short of partners to see his side fold for 86.1 overs.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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