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The second round of the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy came to an end earlier today with few matches producing a thrilling finish. Saurashtra, Karnataka, Bengal and Vidarbha were the teams to have won with a bonus point while defending champions Gujarat registered an outright win.
Pre-tournament favourites Tamil Nadu and Mumbai were held to a draw by Tripura and Madhya Pradesh respectively but both the teams somehow managed to take the first-innings lead.
There were a lot of fine performances that took place in the second round. Let us take a look at the five best performers of this round.
#1 Washington Sundar
Along with Mumbai's Prithvi Shaw, one teenager who is being hailed as the future of Indian Cricket is Tamil Nadu all-rounder Washington Sundar. The 18-year-old made a name for himself in the 2016 under-19 World Cup, 2016 TNPL, 2017 Vijay Hazare Trophy and was picked to represent Rising Pune Supergiant in the 2017 IPL with whom he had an outstanding season.
So, Washington, the bowler is familiar to the Indian fans. But, not many will how his batting powers as he was hardly used as a batsman by his state team Tamil Nadu and in the IPL, thanks to the presence of bigger names in the XI. With opener Murali Vijay opting to sit out of TN's second match of the season against Tripura in Chennai, Washington was asked to open the batting for his team.
This was after his 2-40 with the ball in the first innings that included the wicket of Smit Patel, who was batting on 99. With the bat, he started off slowly on day 2 and when he got his eye in, he stepped on the accelerator as he scored runs fluently.
He reached his fifty off 81 balls and took just 65 balls for his next fifty as his maiden first-class century came off just 146 balls. He continued to dominate the Tripura bowlers and reached his 150 just before stumps on day two before getting out early on day three for a well-made 159 off 231 balls with 14 fours and a lone six.
Tamil Nadu took the first-innings lead comfortably and declared their innings at 357/4 with a lead of just 99, thanks to rain playing spoilsport on day 3. He took one wicket in Tripura's second innings that had only batsmen going back to the pavilion.
Unfortunately, this wasn't enough for Tamil Nadu to get an outright win as rain and bad light took away almost 140 overs of the last two days.
#2 Ashok Dinda
Remember a fast bowler from West Bengal, who wears a headband, runs in, takes a decent leap in the air before delivers the ball? The evergreen Ashok Dinda has started his 2017-18 season with a bang. After scoring a quick-fire fifty in Bengal's first match against Services, Dinda starred with the ball against Chhattisgarh to get his team seven points from the match, thanks to an innings victory.
After being put into bat by Mohammad Kaif, centuries from Koushik Biplab Ghosh and Sudip Chatterjee, along with fifties from Abhishek Raman, Anustup Majumdar and B Amit helped Bengal post 529/7 in the first innings.
It was just one-way traffic since then as Ashok Dinda and Mohammad Shami ran through the Chhattisgarh batting line-up in the first innings as they took nine wickets between them to bundle out the hosts for just 110. Dinda took seven wickets conceding just 21 runs while Shami finished with figures of 2/44.
After being asked to follow on, opener Abhimanyu Chauhan (115) and Ashutosh Singh (71) put on a 172-run partnership for the second wicket and were taking their side to safety with the scorecard reading 206/1. It was when Shami struck in regular intervals and took four wickets to reduce the Mohammad Kaif-led team to 229/5 at the end of day 3.
Shami continued from where he left off on day 3 as he removed overnight batsman Jatin Saxena to register a fifth before Dinda cleaned up the tail by taking three of the last four wickets to give his side a win by an innings and 160 runs. Dinda finished with match figures of 10/47 while Shami accounted for 8 wickets in the match.
Both these bowlers played a big role in Bengal's win but Dinda's ten-wicket haul in the match earned him a place on this list ahead of his new ball partner.
#3 Sheldon Jackson
Sheldon Jackson's heroics on day one of the second round match against Jammu and Kashmir put his side Saurashtra in a commanding position at the end of the day. Coming to bat at the fall of skipper Cheteshwar Pujara with the scorecard reading 59/2, Sheldon lost Robin Uthappa in the next over. It was when he took matters into his own hands as he played a counter-attacking innings to put pressure on the opposition bowlers.
Just before lunch, Sheldon reached his fifty off just 40 balls as he looked in a good touch. He looked comfortable at the crease after the break as he began to play his shots freely and got his next fifty runs off just 31 balls, eventually scoring his first century of the season off 71 balls.
He continued his assault on the bowlers as he kept piling on the runs and reached his 150 in quick time. Eventually, he was dismissed for a 156-ball 181 that included 22 fours and seven sixes. His knock laid the foundation stone for Saurashtra as they scored 624 runs in their first innings and registered an innings win.
#4 Krishnappa Gowtham
Exactly a month back, Karnataka all-rounder Krishnappa Gowtham was banned by the BCCI for missing a Duleep Trophy match by producing a medical certificate stating that he is suffering from Typhoid and a couple of days later, he was spotted playing in the Karnataka Premier League.
As a result, he has been dropped from the India A squad for the two four-day fixtures against the visiting New Zealand A side and was suspended for disciplinary reasons amounting to "gross insult to the system". Later, he apologized for what happened and the BCCI accepted the apology and lifted the suspension imposed on him.
Playing in Karnataka's Ranji Trophy season opener against Assam in Mysore, Gowtham was the start of the show as his all-round efforts helped his team win the match by an innings and 121 runs and take home the seven points that were at stake.
His spell of 4-20 in 12 overs on day 1 helped the hosts dismiss Assam for just 145 in the first innings. Coming to bat at 190/3, Gowtham hit 10 fours and six sixes in his knock of 149 runs that came off just 170 balls and gave his team a massive first-innings lead of 324 runs.
In the second innings, the Assam batsmen showed some fight but that was not enough of them to save the match as they were bundled out for 203. K Gowtham was among the wickets in the second innings too as he picked up three wickets for 31 runs, taking his match tally to 7/51 apart from scoring 149 runs with the bat.
#5 Ravindra Jadeja
While Sheldon Jackson was going berserk against the Jammu and Kashmir bowlers, his batting partner, Ravindra Jadeja was cautious in his approach. After coming to bat at 59/3, Jadeja started off slowly and played a perfect second fiddle to Sheldon's assault. The duo put on 281 runs off just over 50 overs and took their team to 340/4 with Jadeja batting on 96.
The Indian all-rounder reached his century soon after and looked set for a big innings. When the first day of the match came to an end, the left-hander was unbeaten on 150 off 222 balls. On day 2, he continued from where he left off on day 1 as he looked solid in defence and took on the bowlers on merit. He eventually reached his 200 off 310 balls and that was when the Indian fans expected his fourth triple century in Ranji Trophy.
Unfortunately, Jadeja departed for a 313-ball 201 with the help of 23 fours and two sixes. Chasing a daunting total, J&K batsmen fell like nine pins, thanks to Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, who took six wickets for 68 and Ravindra Jadeja, who scalped 4 wickets conceding 40 runs in the first innings.
After enforcing the follow-on, the Saurashtra bowlers made some early in-roads and the visitors were hanging at 145/4 with Ian Chauhan and Pranav Gupta looking set. That's when Ravindra Jadeja triggered a middle-order collapse as he dismissed both these batsmen along with Aditya Pratap and reduced them to 160/7.
Jadeja's all-round show that includes a gritty 201 with the bat and match figures of 7/109 with the ball gave his team an innings victory on the third day.
