The second round of the 2016-17 Ranji trophy concluded today with Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tripura, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha getting an outright win.
There were a lot of players, including team India discards who helped their team win, but the performer of the round goes to Rishabh Pant, who scored a valuable 308 for his team, Delhi. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for his team to get the points they would have wanted.
This round had the statisticians on their feet as several records were broken. The match between Delhi and Maharashtra had three batsmen scoring more than 250 runs. There were also players from other matches who did well. Let us take a look at top-5 performers from this round.
#5 Ishwar Pandey (Madhya Pradesh, 11 wickets)
The round 2 of the Ranji Trophy belonged to the batsmen as a lot of runs were scored in almost all the matches. But there was a bowler who made the ball talk and ended up taking 11 wickets in the round. As every discard would tell you, the only way to get back into the national team is by performing consistently in the domestic tournaments.
The case is same with Madhya Pradesh’s Ishwar Pandey, who was in the Indian team a couple of years back and was discarded without playing a single International game. He came back to the domestic circuit and bowled his heart out.
With Yuvraj Singh’s swashbuckling knock at Lahli catching the eye of the cricket fans, Ishwar called the right shots in the same match by picking up an 8-wicket haul in the first innings and followed it with three in the second. Unfortunately, his outstanding spell went in vain as his side lost to Punjab by 126 runs.
#4 Dinesh Karthik (Tamil Nadu, 18 and 163)
Tamil Nadu wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik is yet another team India discard who did well in the second round of 2016-17 Ranji trophy. No one gave TN a chance to win their match against Railways after they were dismissed for just 121 on day 1. Their bowlers brought them back into the match in spite of conceding a 52 run lead.
Skipper Abhinav Mukund got his team off to a solid start before he ran himself out for 100. Few balls later, TN’s most experienced batsman Dinesh Karthik walked out to bat and went after the bowlers right from the word go. He stamped his authority over the Railways bowling unit and took the game away from them.
He scored runs at a faster rate and gave TN a small hope of snatching a win from the jaws of defeat. His 145-ball 163 helped TN post a mammoth 452 on the board and skipper Mukund decided to set the opposition a target of 400 and Railways fell short by 174 runs.
Karthik’s brisk knock was the turning point in the match especially after he was criticized for getting out to a scoop, which triggered a batting collapse in TN’s first match against Mumbai.
#3 Swapnil Gugale (351*) and Ankit Bawane (258*)
It will be unfair to include just one name out of Swapnil Gugale and Ankit Bawane in the list. The Maharashtra batsmen were the talk of the town for the last couple of days. They put on an unbeaten 594 run partnership for the third wicket against Delhi at the Wankhede stadium, Mumbai.
This is the highest partnership for any wicket in the Ranji Trophy, overtaking the 577 run partnership between Gul Mohammad and Vijay Hazare in 1946-47. They also overtook the highest partnership in any first-class game (sans international cricket) when they overtook Pakistani pair Rafatullah Mohammad and Aamer Sajjad's 580 runs.
They missed out on overtaking Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara’s 624-run stand, which is the highest in FC cricket.
Gugale remained unbeaten on 351 while Bawane scored 258 when the former declared the innings at 635-2. Later in the match, Maharashtra survived a scare when Rishabh Pant’s 308 threatened to get Delhi 3 points on the virtue of taking the first-innings lead. But, Gugale’s men somehow managed to get the three points after dismissing Delhi for 590, four less than the record partnership between Gugale and Bawane.
#2 Yuvraj Singh (Punjab, 177 and 76)
After failing in the first round, India’s out of favour middle-order batsman Yuvraj Singh bounced back in style in Punjab’s second round match against Madhya Pradesh at Lahli. On a wicket that has been termed as a nightmare for the batsmen, Yuvraj managed to send a strong message to the selectors by putting on a splendid performance.
After putting into bat on day 1, Yuvraj survived a hostile spell from Ishwar Pandey before he went for the kill. After getting his eye in, Yuvraj did what he does the best, smashing the bowlers all over the park as he reached his century and looked good for a double. Unfortunately, Yuvraj got out for 177 off 295 balls including 24 boundaries.
In the second innings, he continued from where he left off in the first innings. Once again, Yuvraj came to bat early and went all guns blazing and reached his fifty before getting out for 76. With the selectors yet to announce the ODI squad for the last two ODIs, Yuvraj made a statement for scoring a combined total of 253 runs in the match against MP.
#1 Rishabh Pant (Delhi, 308 off 326 balls)
Rishabh Pant became a household name among the Indian cricket fans ever since his heroics in the 2016 under-19 World Cup. He continued his good form in the 2016 IPL where he played few match-winning knocks for Delhi Daredevils.
He didn’t stop with that as he got his Ranji career off to a great start. After scoring a fifty on debut last season, Pant scored 146 in Delhi’s season opener against Assam and followed it up with a sparkling 308 against Maharashtra.
After conceding a mammoth 635 in the first innings, Delhi had their task cut out to salvage 3 points on the virtue of taking the first-innings lead, but it was a herculean task for the Delhiites. But Pant made his teammates confident about getting those points as he played out of his skin and kept his team in the hunt.
He made sure that his team didn’t fall short of time as he kept the scorecard ticking and scored runs at a faster rate. After reaching his triple century off just 320 balls, he was stumped by VV More for 308 with his team 28 runs short of the 635 mark. Chirag Khurana cleaned up the tail as Delhi fell short by 45 runs.
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