Saurashtra take upper hand against Vidarbha in Ranji quarters

Vizianagaram, 4 February। Centuries from Sheldon Jackson and Sagar Jogiyani helped Saurashtra take an upper hand on the second day of their Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Vidarbha here on Thursday.

Jogiyani (130) and Jackson (122) batted together for more than 50 overs to add 206 runs between them as Saurashtra were all out for 375 in their first innings.

Faiz Fazal (11 batting) and Jitesh Sharma (6 batting) were at the crease as Vidarbha posted 17/0 in their second innings at stumps with Saurasthra enjoying a lead of 207 runs.

Jogiyani struck 17 boundaries and a couple of sixes during his eighth first-class century, while Jackson stroked his way to 13 boundaries and half a dozen sixes. Fast bowler Umesh Yadav was the most successful among the Vidarbha bowlers with 5/81, while Aditya Sarwate returned 4/63.

Meanwhile at Valsad, 16 wickets fell on the second day as Assam took a 209-run lead over Punjab with six wickets in hand in their second innings. Syed Jamaluddin Mohammad scored a century lower down the order as Assam were all out for 323 in their first innings. 

Assam bowlers Arup Das (3/41) and Krishna Das (3/54) then produced a fine display of pace bowling as Punjab were bundled out for 137 runs in their first innings. Mayank Sidhana was the lone Punjab batsman to successfully tackle the Assam bowlers, remaining unbeaten on 80 runs with 10 hits to the fence.

Punjab were reduced to 13/4 in the fifth over before Sidhana and Uday Kaul (25) put together a partnership of 73 runs. But Pallavkumar Das (2/9) struck late blows to help restrict Punjab to a low total.

Young pacer Barinder Singh Sran then claimed figures of 3/11 as Assam were 23/4 in their second innings at the end of the day's play.

In Mysore, Akhil Herwadkar (3/36) and Iqbal Abdulla (3/39) picked up three wickets each as Mumbai reduced Jharkhand to 150/8 in their first innings to end the second day of their quarter-final with a lead of 266 runs. 

Resuming the day at the overnight score of 303/6, Mumbai rode on a half-century from Abhishek Nayar (74) to be all out for 416 runs in their first innings. Left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem had figures of 5/140 for Jharkhand.

Brief scores: 

Vidarbha: 151 and 17/0 trail Saurashtra: 375 (Jogiyani 130, Jackson 122; Yadav 5/81, Aditya Sarwate 4/63) by 207 runs.

Assam: 323 and 23/4 (Sran 3/11) lead Punjab 137 ( Sidhana 80; Arup Das 3/41, Krishna 3/54) by 209 runs.

Mumbai: 416 (Akhil Herwadkar 107, Abhishek Nayar 74; Shahbaz Nadeem 5/140) lead Jharkhand 150/8 (Anand Singh 39; Akhil Herwadkar 3/36, Iqbal Abdulla 3/39) by 266 runs.

Madhya Pradesh: 254/4 (Shrivastava 65, Naman 64, Devendra Bundela 58, Harpreet Singh 51) and 14/0 lead Bengal 121 (Abhimanyu Easwaran 48; Ishwar Pandey 4/45) by 241 runs.