Centurions Vijay and Mukund give Tamil Nadu perfect start
A round-up of the first day's play of the fourth-round matches of the Ranji Trophy, 2007-08
Cricinfo staff
01-Dec-2007
Tamil Nadu 262 for 1 (Vijay 129*, Mukund 120) v Saurashtra
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M Vijay and Abhinav Mukund gave Tamil Nadu the perfect start as they ended the first day in Chennai with only one wicket down. Vijay scored an unbeaten 129, his third first-class century in 12 matches, while Mukund scored 120, his second in as many Ranji games. Out of the two, Mukund was the cautious partner in the 256-run stand, as Vijay hit four sixes and 13 fours in his innings. Vijay's strike-rate came down to around 50 only towards the end of the day when they started playing for stumps. The dream start to Mukund's career continued as he moved up from No. 3 with the same results.
Punjab squandered a good start as Bengal struck with wickets towards the end of the day to reduce the opposition to 210 for 7 at Siliguri. After winning the toss, Punjab got off to a good start when their openers made Bengal wait for 26.3 overs and 78 runs for their first success. Although they lost another wicket in the next over, the middle order stabilised the proceedings after that. But, from 177 for 3, they lost Panjak Dharmani and Uday Kaul, their mainstays this season, in quick succession and they lost four wickets for 25 towards the end of the day's play.
Karan Goel, the opener, scored 52 and Kaul managed 42.
Maharashtra 308 for 5 (Takawale 83*, Bhilare 78) v Mumbai
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The Maharashtra batsmen made Mumbai work hard at the Wankhede Stadium, each of them reached double figures and ended the first day in charge at 308 for 5. The major scoring honours, though, went to Nos 5 and 6 Yogesh Takawale and Vishal Bhilare respectively. Takawale, the wicketkeeper-batsman, ended the day nearing a maiden century and his unbeaten 83 is already his highest score in first-class cricket. Bhilare fell about an hour before stumps for 78.
Suresh Raina was Uttar Pradesh's bowling weapon as they pulled things back after Baroda had had the best of the first two sessions at Kanpur. Raina took three wickets for 40 runs and dsmissed half-centurions Rakesh Solanki and Irfan Pathan who had started to look dangerous.
Earlier, Satyajit Parab helped Baroda recover from the early loss of Connor Williams, and in company of Azharuddin Bilakhia and Solanki, took Baroda to a strong position. Parab scored 71 and Bilakhia, 48 as the two fell within 16 runs of each other. Solanki and Irfan threatened to take Baroda to a much higher total before Raina struck, as Baroda were reduced from 259 for 5 to 300 for 9. UP's other two internationals, Praveen Kumar and Piyush Chawla, took three wickets apiece.
Just when the familiar script - that of a Himachal Pradesh collapse after a good start - looked like repeating itself, they found resistance from Paras Dogra and Maninder Bisla to end the day at 228 for 5. From 103 for 1, they had been reduced to 153 for 5 and a tame end looked imminent, as it has happened often this season. Dogra and Bisla scored unbeaten thirties, batted out close to 20 overs, and ensured that Himachal were in the competition at the end of the first day.
Earlier Manish Gupta and Mukesh Sharma scored half-centuries and took Himachal past 100 for the loss of only one wicket. It was legspinner Chetanya Nanda for Delhi who had triggered the collapse with figures of 3 for 57.
Rajasthan 266 for 4 (Sharma 68, Bist 62*) v Karnataka
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The Rajasthan batsmen put up their most creditable show so far in the season, as they ended the first day in Mysore at 266 for 4. In the absence of Gagan Khoda, their leading run-scorer going into the match, they had a good opening stand from Manish Sharma and Vineet Saxena. Saxena just missed his half-century, falling in the 37th over with the score on 120. Sunil Joshi struck again six runs later, causing a minor collapse as Rajasthan soon found themselves down at 159 for 4 in the 61st over.Robin Bist and Rohit Jhalani then scored sixties, denied Karnataka another wicket, and added 107 for the unbroken fifth-wicket partnership.
Hyderabad 201 for 8 (Ravi Teja 81, Mohanty 4-49, Sehgal 3-53) v Orissa
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Hyderabad wasted a rollicking start from DB Ravi Teja, collapsing from 97 for 0 to 184 for 8. Pragyan Ojha and Ashwin Yadav survived more than 10 overs to end the day at 201 for 8.
It was Teja's morning as he had scored 81 out of Hyderabad's 97 when he got out. In stark contrast to his 102.53 per 100 balls, the next best strike-rate was his opening partner Daniel Manohar's - 37.96, the only one in the thirties. Manohar scored 41. For Orissa, Debasis Mohanty bowled 25 overs for 49 runs and took four wickets. Mohanty was supported well by left-arm medium-pacer Sourabha Sehgal who took 3 for 53.