Report

Awana, Saini fold Rajasthan for 141

A round-up of the Ranji Trophy Group B matches played on December 21, 2014

Delhi 10 for 1 trail Rajasthan 141 (Bishnoi 57, Awana 4-15, Saini 3-31) by 131 runs
Scorecard
Delhi paces Parvinder Awana and Nitin Saini demolished the Rajasthan line-up and shared seven out of the 10 wickets to wrap up the visitors for 141 on the first day at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Barring Rajesh Bishnoi's fifty, no other batsman could cross 30 and only four of them reached double-figures in the 64.1 overs they survived.
Rajasthan lost their top order within 19 overs after they opted to bat and soon became 72 for 5 with Awana taking two of those. Bishnoi came out at No. 5 and resisted with a knock of 57, with five fours and a six, to take them towards 150. However, once he got out at the team score of 141, Rajasthan could not score another run and lost the remaining three wickets in four deliveries. Awana finished with 4 or 15 and Saini's 3 for 31 was a promising performance to follow 3 for 27 in the previous match against Saurashtra.
Delhi had four overs to play before stumps and lost captain Gautam Gambhir for a duck when he was bowled by Aniket Choudhary. They were trailing by 131 runs after Varun Sood joined Unmukt Chand for two overs.
Vidarbha 101 for 3 (Fazal 42*, Hooda 2-29) v Haryana
Scorecard
Vidarbha recovered from early losses and then lost a third wicket again towards the end of the day while scoring 101 runs on the first day in Lahli, where only 47 overs were possible. Put in to bat, Vidarbha's batting was led by opener Faiz Fazal's unbeaten 42 while two other batsmen got out in the 20s.
Opener Sanjay Ramaswamy fell for a 14-ball duck in the third over to Joginder Sharma. Fazal and Ganesh Satish put on 34 for the second wicket before Ashish Hooda, who took nine wickets in the last match, removed Satish for 23. Just when Fazal and S Badrinath also got a partnership going, of 43, Hooda broke the stand again by trapping Badrinath lbw for 20. Fazal steered the score past 100 with Shalabh Shrivastava before it was stumps.
Gujarat 3 for 0 trail Saurashtra 207 (Jackson 48, Akshar 4-72) by 204 runs
Scorecard
In another low-scoring first day, Akshar Patel's four wickets wrapped up Saurashtra for 207 in Rajkot. No batsman could reach 50 and Akshar's efforts were complemented by a wicket each from spinners Pranjal Sutaria, Jesal Karia and Rujul Bhatt, and two from pacer Kushang Patel.
Saurashtra opted to bat and lost wickets at regular intervals, because of Akshar. Sheldon Jackson top-scored with 48, that included three fours and a six, as nearly all the other batsmen got to double-figures but could not build on the starts. Lower-order contributions of 26 each from Kamlesh Makvana and Siddharth Trivedi took them past 200 even though they were 138 for 6 at one point.
Punjab 26 for 1 trail Maharashtra 210 (Tripathi 56, Bawne 44, Kaul 3-46, Harbhajan 2-37) by 184 runs
Scorecard
Punjab's bowlers executed their plans to perfection, as they snatched the advantage from hosts Maharashtra on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group B game. For the full report click here.