Mayank Agarwal’s 81 for Karnataka was his 13th first-class fifty © Getty Images
Vidarbha slumped to their fifth-lowest score in Ranji Trophy history as Maharashtra bowled them out for 59 runs in Kolkata, on the back of Anupam Sanklecha’s career-best figures of 7 for 25.
Shalabh Shrivastava top scored with 19, but with no other batsman reaching double figures. Sanklecha cleaned up the tail as they lost their last five wickets in the space of eight runs. In response, Maharashtra’s Naushad Shaikh scored his second-consecutive ton. He remained unbeaten on 111 with Ankit Bawne (75) as Maharashtra finished on 240 for 3, with the partnership worth 181.
In Agartala, Prerak Mankad‘s 137-ball 96 helped Saurashtra post 277 against Jharkhand. Asked to bat, Saurashtra fell from 11 for 0 to 38 for 4, before the captain Jaydev Shah (51) and Mankad put together 62 runs to take them to 100, following which Jaydev was bowled by Samar Quadri. Mankad reached his second fifty in his second first-class match before falling short of a maiden century when Ashish Kumar dismissed him four shy of triple figures. A 40-run last wicket partnership between Vandit Jivrajani and Kushang Patel took them to 277. Kumar and Shahbaz Nadeem were the pick of the Jharkhand bowlers picking up four and three wickets each, respectively. In the 9 overs Jharkhand batted, openers Anand Singh and Pratyush Singh scored 29 runs by stumps, trailing by 248.
Three half-centuries from Karnataka’s batsmen powered them to 345 for 6 at stumps against Rajasthan in Vizianagaram. Choosing to bat, openers Ravikumar Samarth and KL Rahul scored 111 runs before Rahul, returning to first-class cricket to prove his match fitness ahead of the third England Test, was dismissed on 76 by left-arm pacer TM Ul-Haq. Mayank Agarwal, who has just one fifty-plus score this season, stitched together a 68-run stand with Stuart Binny. He made 81 and was dismissed with Karnataka on 283 for 5. The lower middle order then conjured up a fight to take them close to 350.
Assam scored 224 for 5, on the back of a 131-run partnership for the fifth wicket, against Odisha in Hyderabad.
After losing their first three wickets for 37 runs, Sibsankar Roy laboured to a 142-ball 37, before being dismissed after adding 60 runs for the fourth wicket. Kunal Saikia and Arun Karthik then batted till second-last over of the day, adding 131 before the latter was dismissed by Basant Mohanty on 62. Saikia finished not out on 88 – his highest first-class score – with Arup Das (0) as play ended on day 1. Mohanty and Suryakant Prasad finished with two wickets each for Odisha.
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo