Gujarat retained the upper hand against Vidarbha on Day 1 of their Ranji Trophy Group D match with a 114-run lead. Tejas Patel (5/19) and Chintan Gaja (5/31) bowled out Vidarbha for 74 as Gujarat finished the day at 188 for 5 after brilliant performances from the pace duo. are taken Vidarbha captain Akshay Wadkar elected to bat after winning the toss, after which Patel trapped veteran Faiz Fazal leg before in the fourth over, who could not even open the account.
In front of the sharp bowling of Patel and Gaja, only opener Sanjay Ramaswamy (33 runs in 61 balls, five fours) was able to play for some time. Amidst the fall of wickets, Ramaswamy held one end. In Vidarbha, five batsmen could not even open their account. Vidarbha’s score at one stage was 25 for five. Ramaswamy and Jitesh Sharma (10) kept the pair of Patel and Gaja wicketless for 12 overs. Gaja broke the partnership when Ramaswamy was lbw for 61 runs, after which Vidarbha lost the remaining four wickets by adding 13 runs.
Gujarat also lost the wicket of opener Priyesh Patel early while batting, who was sent to the pavilion by Aditya Sarwate (3 for 50). Openers Arya Desai (3/50) and Bhargav Merai (40) put on 117 runs for the second wicket to put Gujarat in a strong position. Vidarbha picked up two more wickets after Sarwate Desai and Merai were dismissed. At the end of the day’s play, captain Het Patel was playing on 14 runs.
Centuries from Anmolpreet Singh (124) and Nehal Wadhera (123 not out) helped Punjab post 302 for five against defending champions Madhya Pradesh in Mohali. Due to inclement weather in Jammu only 24 overs of play could be played in which J&K scored 52 runs against Tripura without losing a wicket. Vivek Singh (108) and Upendra Yadav (113) scored centuries as Railways scored 327 for eight against Chandigarh in another Group D match at Chandigarh. Sandeep Sharma took five wickets for 87 runs from Chandigarh.
