Round-up of the Group C Ranji Trophy matches on December 1, 2015
ESPNcricinfo staff01-Dec-2015
ScorecardRobin Bist was one of the 11 batsmen to fall to a left-arm spinner in Malappuram•PTI
Malappuram gave tough competition to Dindigul by seeing the fall of 20 wickets, which ended with Himachal Pradesh taking a 60-run lead against Kerala, thanks to six wickets from left-arm spinner Rahul Singh. That dented the hosts’ chances of topping the Group C table, as they are placed second right now, behind Saurashtra, and HP are fourth.Opting to bat, Kerala started losing wickets from the fifth over as Rishi Dhawan dismissed their top three batsmen for 32 runs. Sanju Samson (25) resisted by surviving for nearly two hours but wickets fell around him as Rahul ran through the middle and lower order, that included two wickets in the 20th over and two off consecutive deliveries in the 34th over. Kerala lost seven wickets for 29 runs before K Monish’s unbeaten 16 off 40 balls helped them cross 100 and they were bowled out for 103. Rahul finished with 6 for 19, his second five-for in first-class cricket, and Dhawan ended with 3 for 24.HP took a lead with rather ease, being 123 for 3 at one point as opener Prashant Chopra led the way with 40 runs. But Monish’s left-arm spin dismissed the openers and HP started losing wickets in a heap after they crossed 150. Monish and Akshay Chandran, also a left-arm spinner, hurt the visitors’ middle order before offspinner Fabid Ahmed took the last two wickets to end with 3 for 12 from 4.5 overs, and Monish ended with 3 for 60 to end the innings on 163. HP lost their last six wickets for 12 runs.
ScorecardJharkhand looked set to take first-innings lead by bowling out Hyderabad for 145 on the first day at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. Three wickets each from Jaskaran Singh, Kaushal Singh and Shahbaz Nadeem helped Jharkhand in taking the last six wickets for 30 runs, and they finished the day on 31 for 1, trailing by 114 runs.Put in to bat, Hyderabad saw their top three batsmen getting starts before Jharkhand’s pacers struck. Bavanaka Sandeep (39) and Himalay Agarwal (20) forged a stand of 31 runs to take the score past 100 for the loss of four wickets only to see a lower-order collapse. Once Himalay was dismissed by Kaushal, Hyderabad saw their last five batsmen score only 13 runs together to squander the start they had.Jharkhand lost Sumit Kumar for 13 in the 11 overs they faced, and Shiv Gautam and Anand Singh were unbeaten on 14 and 4 respectively. Earlier, Jharkhand medium-pacer Rahul Shukla injured himself while bowling the 44th over and his over was completed by Jaskaran. Shukla came back later on to bowl.
ScorecardTable-toppers of Group C, Saurashtra, got into the lead with eight wickets in hand after bowling out Jammu & Kashmir for 138 in Jammu. Medium-pacer Saurya Sanandiya’s five wickets were responsible for rocking J&K’s top order as they survived less than 50 overs before Saurashtra ended the day on a comfortable 150 for 2.Once J&K were put in to bat, they lost their top three wickets to Sanandiya in the first 12 overs. The next three batsmen – Ian Dev Singh (29), Parvez Rassool (21) and Aamir Aziz (32) – helped the team but they lost three quick wickets to be reduced to 66 for 6. Aziz led them past 100 but they were soon bowled out because of regular fall of wickets. Sanandiya finished with 5 for 53, his first five-for in first-class cricket, and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and Kamlesh Makvana took two each.Saurashtra got a strong start with an opening stand of 84 between Abi Barot (36) and Sagar Jogiyani (41). Both fell within the space of six runs before Arpit Vasavada (31*) and Sheldon Jackson (35*) steered them with an unbroken stand of 60 runs.
ScorecardRajat Paliwal’s fourth century of the season – 147* – steered Services to a respectable 282 for 5 against Tripura in Agartala. Medium-pacer Rana Dutta put Services in a spot of bother at 33 for 3 before Paliwal’s hundred helped the visitors build partnerships to lead them to a comfortable position.Dutta first broke the opening stand, after Services were asked to bat, and then struck twice in the 14th over with the wickets of Anshul Gupta and Amit Pachhara. That brought together Vikas Hathwala (38) and Paliwal who put on 72 runs to stall the fall of wickets. Hathwala was also removed by Dutta, on the score of 105, and Paliwal then stitched a useful stand of 53 runs with YashPal Singh (18). Paliwal brought up his 12th first-class hundred as Yashpal fell too, and Paliwal and Devender Lochab took them towards 300 with an unborken partnership of 124 runs before bad light cut the day short by 14 overs. Paliwal struck 19 fours and three sixes during the day, and Dutta took 4 for 53.