A round-up of the final day’s play of the first-round matches of the Ranji Trophy Super League 2008-09
Cricinfo staff06-Nov-2008
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Siddharth Trivedi took seven wickets in the match to give Gujarat an innings win © Cricinfo Ltd
Rakesh Dhurv delayed it with 11 fours in an unbeaten 52, but Gujarat finally sealed a thumping innings-and-227-run win over Saurashtra. At 74 for 5 in the second innings, trailing by 354 runs, Saurashtra needed a batting effort far different from what they managed on the previous two days.It was nearly eight overs when Siddharth Trivedi struck the first blow, removing Sandip Maniar for 3 – the team score was 95. Pratik Mehta and opener Kanaiya Vaghela added 32 in 15.3 overs. Mehta was bowled by Ashraf Makda for 28, and Trivedi got Vaghela soon after. Vaghela’s 36 came off 188 balls, lasting nearly four-and-a-half hours at the crease. Mohnish Parmar removed Sandeep Jobanputra, but Gujarat were frustrated by the last-wicket pair of Dhurv and debutant Jayesh Odedra, who played out 66 deliveries for his 10. Amit Singh’s lone wicket of the innings ended the match. The win gave Gujarat six points, an emphatic way for the promoted team to kick off the season.
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Tamil Nadu chose to enforce the follow-on after left-arm spinner C Suresh took career-best figures of 5 for 122 to bowl out Maharashtra for 457 in reply to the visitors’ 648. But on a flat Nasik pitch they could not repeat the effort a second time and had to be content with the three points from the first-innings lead. Suresh added two wickets to his three yesterday as the Maharashtra lower order managed only 56 more before being bowled out.Then Kedar Jadhav and Nikhil Paradkar frustrated their attempts with a 164-run stand after the first three wickets fell for 55. First-innings centurion Ameya Shrikhande was caught and bowled for 28 but Jadhav, who scored a half-century yesterday, batted for fours hours for his 95. He played cautiously after Paradkar was dismissed for a well-made 92, falling less than three overs before stumps.
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Hyderabad batted out the final day as their match against Orissa ended in an expected draw in Cuttack. Having bowled out Orissa for 269 and gained points from a first-innings lead on day three, Hyderabad chose to get some batting practice today.Debutant D Rushi Raj made up for his first-innings 15 to score a patient fifty, while Anoop Pai got his second half-century of the match. Ravi Teja and Arjun Yadav also chipped in with useful scores as the Orissa bowlers toiled for 76 overs for their wickets. Debasis Mohanty got five wickets for the match while Preetamjit Das took four.
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The only delight for Andhra in their draw with Uttar Pradesh was legspinner M Suresh’s career-best figures of 5 for 80. UP had gained a first-innings lead by then and Andhra had to be satisfied by bowling them out and then batting out the remaining 45 overs to get one point from the match.Centuries from Mohammad Kaif and Tanmay Srivastava overnight left the hosts needing five runs to get the three points for the first-innings lead. Medium-pacer Israel Raju triggered the collapse by removing Piyush Chawla off the first ball the day. But the points had been gained by the time Suresh took his first wicket – having Ravikant Shukla caught by Raju. He wrapped up the tail soon enough, taking the last three wickets in successive overs. Andhra openers Hemal Watekar (65) and Prasad Reddy added 128 together before Watekar was bowled an over before stumps.
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An anti-climax draw followed after fifteen wickets fell in the day and Railways were a target of 104 to be chased in nine overs. Yere Goud’s unbeaten 122 gave Railways a first-innings lead of 24 after which debutant medium-pacer Anureet Singh took 6 for 49 to bowl out Karnataka for 127.Goud, who had reached his century yesterday, was aided by tail-enders Murali Kartik (11) and Harvinder Singh (22) in getting Railways the lead. Then Sanjib Sanyal removed the Karnataka openers with 46 on the board. Anureet made his appearance soon after, bowling G Satish for 19. He took two wickets in two overs – removing Thilak Naidu and first-innings centurion Robin Uthappa for ducks. Sanyal and Karan Sharma took two wickets each. It was unlikely that Railways would have tried to chase the target considering they needed nearly 12 an over. But their innings was also not short of drama – they lost their openers in the first two overs with only six on the board. Raja Ali and Sanjay Bangar batted out two more overs before the teams decided to call it a draw.
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Legspinner Chetanya Nanda joined the list of half-centurions in Delhi’s first innings and prolonged the Punjab bowlers’ misery in the draw at the Roshnara Club Ground in Delhi. He was the sixth batsman to get a half-century in the innings as Delhi extended their first-innings lead to 128. Gagandeep Singh dismissed him for 56 to end the innings and get 3 for 97. Nanda then took two wickets , including Yuvraj Singh for 38, as Punjab batted out the 49 overs remaining in the day.
ScorecardMumbai scored a convincing 237-run victory against Rajasthan to start their campaign on an ominous note. Rajasthan’s top order had crumbled meekly on the previous evening and there wasn’t much resistance from the rest as they crumbled to 171. Dhawal Kulkarni took four wickets in the second innings to finish one short of becoming the second Mumbai bowler (after Suru Nayak) to take ten wickets on debut. Read the full report here.