The knockout phase of the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy kicked off with former champions Karnataka getting bundled out for just 88 in their first innings against Tamil Nadu in the south Indian derby quarter-final clash at Vizag. Tamil Nadu ended the day with a small lead of 23 runs.
After asked to bat first, Karnataka lost the wicket of India’s KL Rahul for just 4 and since then, the Tamil Nadu bowlers made regular inroads in the Karnataka batting order. Aswin Crist dismissed K Abbas for 0 before Natarajan returned and struck twice in two overs. Kaushik Gandhi caught R Samarth, who looked comfortable on 11 and soon after, Abhimanyu Mithun was sent back by Natarajan for 6.
Manish Pandey tried to pull things back with Karun Nair as he got his eye in with a 52-ball 28 before Crist returned and dismissed him. Since then, it was just a one-way traffic as Crist trapped Stuart Binny for a duck in the next over before taking the prize wicket of Karun for 14 off the very first ball after lunch.
Wicketkeeper-batsman CM Gautam too didn’t last long as he gave away his wicket to Crist for 2. K Vignesh joined the party by dismissing Shreyas Gopal for just 1 and Crist finished things off by dismissing Karnataka skipper Vinay Kumar for 14. Crist ended with figures of 6-31 while Natarajan picked up 3-18.
In reply, Tamil Nadu openers L Suryaprakash and Kaushik Gandhi gave their team a steady start by putting on 30 runs for the first wicket. It was when there was a mini batting collapse as both the openers were dismissed by Sreenath Arvind for 15 each before Stuart Binny accounted for Baba Inderjith for just 1. From 30-0, TN were reduced to 33-3 before Vijay Shankar and Dinesh Karthick put on a 70-run partnership. Things were going in the right direction, but Vijay Shankar ran himself out for 34 and broke an exceptional partnership between him and Karthick.
TN ended the day’s play with the scorecard reading 111-4 with their seasoned campaigners Dinesh Karthick and Abhinav Mukund batting on 31 and 3 respectively.
In an another quarter-final clash at Jaipur, Gujarat were rescued by Chirag Gandhi and Rush Kalaria after they were reduced to 71-6 against Odisha. Gandhi and Kalaria notched up their half centuries as the Parthiv Patel-led side ended day 1 at 197-6. Earlier in the day, both the teams walked off owing to poor pitch conditions.
Also read: Gujarat vs Odisha quarter-final stopped due to poor pitch conditions
In the other quarter-final match at Raipur, defending champions, Mumbai were in tatters at 34-4 against Hyderabad before a 105-run partnership between Siddesh Lad and skipper Aditya Tare took them to a good position. Tare departed for 73 off 148 balls but Lad continued to grind out and reached his century off 194 balls. At Stumps, Mumbai were 250-5 with Lad batting on 50 with the support of Abhishek Nayar, who is unbeaten on 46. Hyderabad pacer Chama Milind caused some early trouble to Mumbai and finished the day with figures of 3-64.
In the final quarter-final match at Vadodara, Jharkhand’s Shahbaz Nadeem’s fifer halted Haryana’s march as Mohit Sharma’s men were in a decent position of 251/7 when the stumps were drawn for the day.
Brief scores:
At Vizag: Tamil Nadu 111/4 (Vijay Shankar 34, Dinesh Karthick 31*, S Arvind 2-14) vs Karnataka 88 (Aswin Crist 6-31, T Natarajan 3-18).
At Vadodara: Haryana 251/7 (Rajat Paliwal 42, SM Pahal 38*, Shahbaz Nadeem 5-75) vs Jharkhand.
At Raipur: Mumbai 250/5 (Siddesh Lad 101*, Aditya Tare 73, Chama Milind 3-64) vs Hyderabad.
At Jaipur: Gujarat 197/6 (Chirag Gandhi 62*, Rush Kalaria 59*, Deepak Behara 3-36) vs Odisha.
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