Ranji Trophy: Saurashtra take 1st-innings lead against Manipur on day one

Stand-in Saurashtra skipper Arpit Vasavada scored a composed half-century while opener Harvik Desai narrowly missed a 50 as the defending champions took a narrow first-innings lead on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group A match against Manipur here on Friday.

At stumps on day one, Saurashtra, replying to Manipur’s first innings score of 142, had made 153 for three to lead by 11 runs.

On a day when India batter Cheteshwar Pujara pushed himself down the order and Vasavada led Saurashtra in place of regular skipper Jaydev Unadkat, the home team bowlers made optimum use of familiar conditions to bundle out the visitors for 142 in 45 overs.

Veteran Saurashtra left-arm spinner Dharmendrasinh Jadeja grabbed four wickets. Unadkat is not playing the game due to a niggle.

Manipur opener Al Bashid Muhammed (51) and captain Langlonyamba Keishangbam (61) were the only two visiting team players who made fine starts but the 33-year-old Jadeja accounted for both as the tourists slumped to another below-par total in the tournament.

Also Read: Manipur filmmaker Sonia Nepram shines at 74th Berlin International Film Festival

While Jadeja had figures of 4/62, his left-arm pace-bowling India partner Chetan Sakariya also impressed with a three-wicket haul.

Saurashtra opener Harvik Desai (48) then steadied the innings following quick dismissals of opener Kevin Jivrajani (9) and the previous game’s centurion Sheldon Jackson (20).

At 35/2, Saurashtra needed someone to shore up the innings and the dependable Desai and Vasavada strung together a 106-run stand as the defending champions reached 141/3.

Five overs later, stumps were drawn with Saurashtra taking a narrow lead.

With Saurashtra batting running deep and Pujara finding his touch following a shaky start to the season, the hosts would like to pile a sizeable total and then aim for an innings win.

Manipur looked hapless against a quality bowling attack with five of their batters getting dismissed for duck, while four others could not cross even 10 runs. Though captain Keishangbam and wicketkeeper-batter Al Bashid painstakingly scored half-centuries, their efforts were not complemented by teammates.

In Jamshedpur, all eyes were on whether the country’s top-order batter Ishan Kishan would be in Jharkhand’s playing XI following the BCCI’s diktat that all India players, currently not in the national squad, should play the last round of Ranji matches to keep themselves match fit.

However, the wicketkeeper-batter is reportedly “working on certain technical aspects” of his game and therefore opted out of the match.

Jharkhand were dismissed for a paltry 188 on day one with Rajasthan scoring 79 for 2 in reply at stumps.

Brief scores: In Rajkot: Manipur 142 in 45 overs (Al Bashid Muhammed 51, Langlonyamba Keishangbam 76; Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 4/62, Chetan Sakariya 3/29, Yuvrajsinh Dodiya 2/14) vs Saurashtra 153 for 3 in 43 overs (Harvik Desai 48, Arpit Vasavada batting 63; Lamabam Singh 2/34).

In Jamshedpur: Jharkhand 188 in 58.3 overs (Utkarsh Singh 43, Saurabh Tiwary 42; Khaleel Ahmed 3/40, Mahipal Lomror 3/8)vs Rajasthan 79 for 2 in 29 overs (Sumit Godara batting 37).

In Delhi: Maharashtra 225 in 79 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 96, Digvijay Patil 42; Arjun Sharma 5/59, Varun Choudhary 4/39) vs Services 27 for no loss 9 overs.

In Nagpur: Vidarbha 313 for 5 in 86 overs (Dhruv Shorey 78, Akshay Wadkar 62, Yash Rathod batting 68, Aditya Sarwate batting 74) vs Haryana.