Teams winning the toss chose to bat and reached contrasting positions after Day of the Ranji Trophy semi-finals. Hosting Mumbai in Nagpur, Vidarbha reached a good-looking 308/5 despite having no scores in three figures. In Ahmedabad against Gujarat, Kerala saw a number of batters fail to convert starts and made 206/4 on a day of slow batting, especially in the final session.
Vidarbha vs Mumbai, VCA Stadium, Nagpur
A couple of scores in the seventies and Karun Nair falling five short of 50 were talking points, but the highlight of the day was Shivam Dube getting rid of two well-set players. His military medium broke a promising second-wicket stand. India’s T20 star then sent back Nair when he was on 45. Vidarbha still reached a good position, but it could have been better but for those timely strikes.
Opener Dhruv Shorey led Vidarbha’s batting after the early loss of Atharva Taide. The right-hander was in good touch and looked set for a second century of the season before being dismissed by Shams Mulani. The left-arm spinner also accounted for Danish Malewar, who became the second batter after Shorey to fall in the seventies.
For Mumbai, Shardul Thakur failed to make an impact. Hero of the quarter-final against Haryana, the medium-pacer and lower-order batter conceded 57 from 14 wicketless overs. His new-ball partner Mohit Awasthi went for 61 from 14. On an average day for the frontline quick bowlers, Mulani’s spin and Dube’s double strike kept Mumbai in it.
Brief scores: Vidarbha 308/5 in 88 ovs (Danish Malewar 79, Dhruv Shorey 74, Shams Mulani 2/44, Shivam Dube 2/35) vs Mumbai.
Gujarat vs Kerala, Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
Kerala had reached the semi-final after stonewalling Jammu & Kashmir on the last day of their quarter-final. They didn’t have to look for runs and lost just four wickets on Day 5 to convert their one-run first-innings lead into a decisive one. For some strange reason on Day of the semi-final, the visiting team applied the same strategy.
There were these ‘nervous 30’ as well as three batters got out on that score. Skipper Sachin Baby was the only one to do better and remained unbeaten on 69 off 193 balls. Openers Rohan Kunnumal, Akshay Chandran and No. 5 Jalaj Saxena fell for 30. All of them had done the hard work of getting in and fell when their team needed bigger contributions from them.
The first wicket began the run of ill luck for Kerala. Kunnumal and Chandran had put together 60 for the opening wicket when the former drove the ball towards extra-cover and called his partner for a non-existent single. Chandran was run out at the striker’s end. Despite not getting wickets in a heap, Gujarat stayed in the game by slowing down the scoring rate.
Brief scores: Kerala 206/4 in 89 ovs (Sachin Baby batting 69) vs Gujarat.
The post Kerala go slow, Vidarbha cross 300 on Day 1 of Ranji semis appeared first on Sports News Portal | Latest Sports Articles | Revsports.
