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Shakib Al Hasan, Iqbal Abdulla and Yusuf Pathan tied Pune down, exploiting the generous spin available on the DY Patil Stadium surface, and Gautam Gambhir ensured that his side motored to victory in the 17th over

The Bulletin by Abhishek Purohit19-May-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSourav Ganguly managed just 18 against his former team•AFP

It was billed as Sourav Ganguly’s payback game against Kolkata Knight Riders. Instead, it proved to be a stern examination on a turner for the Pune Warriors batsmen, and called in to question the home side’s decision to play only one specialist spinner as Shakib Al Hasan, Iqbal Abdulla and Yusuf Pathan exploited the generous spin available to tie Pune down. Kolkata, anchored by Gautam Gambhir, and under no pressure with an asking rate of below six, motored to victory, taking a big step towards making the play-offs.Unless they lose badly to Mumbai Indians in their last league game, and Kings XI Punjab manage another big win in their last match, Kolkata should be through to the knock-outs.The comfortable victory was set up by the Kolkata spin trio, who picked up five wickets for 51 runs in 11 overs, but more than that, preyed on the minds of the Pune batsmen, who struggled to score on a pitch that would have been a good test of batsmen’s skills in a Test match against quality spin, but looked out of place in a Twenty20 game.Right from the first ball that Abdulla bowled, it was clear that the batsmen were in for a hard grind. It was flighted, drew Manish Pandey forward, and spun sharply across as he missed the ball by a long way. The third was the typical left-arm spinner’s sucker ball, making Pandey push forward outside the line for the turn and going straight on to strike him in front. This was after Jesse Ryder had targeted the second ball of spin in the game, trying to smash Yusuf Pathan for six but only finding mid-off. It was the beginning of Pune’s problems.Callum Ferguson came in ahead of Ganguly, and the relative ease with which he played during his short innings made one wonder again what he had been doing in the Pune dugout for most of the season. It was the spinners’ night though, and Ferguson was left clueless as he skipped out to Shakib, only for the ball to turn a long way past his bat for Shreevats Goswami to do the rest.There was a time when left-arm spin from both ends would never be tried against Ganguly, but that time is long gone. Ganguly led a charmed life today, almost edging the ball on to the stumps and also escaping a stumping chance. He showed one glimpse of the batsman he once was, lofting Abdulla for a very straight six, but clearly, sustained big hitting on a difficult pitch was too much to expect. He departed on another failed attempt to break free, sweeping Shakib to Yusuf at backward square leg.It was not until the 13th over that Pune’s most explosive batsmen, Robin Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh, got together. A run-rate that had remained stuck below six after the opening over forced Uthappa to go hard at Yusuf in the next over, but he swung it to deep midwicket where Lee took a sharp catch. Yuvraj was left playing the tragic hero yet again, but even he could not do much, ultimately top-edging a pull off L Balaji, who came on to bowl for the first time in the last over.Alfonso Thomas got Pune the breakthrough in the first over, getting Goswami caught behind with one that took off. That was as close as Pune came to entertaining hopes of an upset, and Kolkata’s line-up proved to be too powerful, not even requiring the services of Jacques Kallis, who had injured his finger in the field.Gambhir, as always, showed how to tackle a turning pitch, repeatedly using his feet against Pune’s spinners, Rahul Sharma and Yuvraj. He also played two delightful extra cover drives off successive deliveries against Thomas. Yusuf wasn’t far behind, making room to cut Rahul’s skiddy deliveries from off stump through short third man.That it wasn’t to be Pune’s day was evident when consecutive throws from Ferguson ran to the boundary, the latter after hitting the stumps. Not that it mattered in the end, as Kolkata were simply the superior side by a long margin.

Seamer Lee Daggett recorded his best bowling figures in a one-day match as Northamptonshire thrashed the Netherlands by 119 runs to claim their first win in this season’s Clydesdale Bank 40

31-May-2010
ScorecardDavid Sales made 62 at the top of the order for Northamptonshire•PA Photos

Seamer Lee Daggett recorded his best bowling figures in a one-day match as Northamptonshire thrashed the Netherlands by 119 runs to claim their first win in this season’s Clydesdale Bank 40. The home side made 238 for 7 from their 40 overs, with David Sales and Rob White making half-centuries after the hosts recovered from 9 for 2 after four overs.Daggett then took 4 for 17 in eight overs as the Netherlands failed to reproduce yesterday’s heroics at Derbyshire as they collapsed to 119 all out, with only ex-Sussex man Bas Zuiderent (32) providing any resistance.Northamptonshire won the toss and chose to bat but they got off to an awful start by losing two wickets in the fourth over. Mark Jonkman was the bowler and he forced Mal Loye to edge to wicketkeeper Atse Buurman before Vishal Tripathi launched him straight to Mudassar Bukhari at third man to go for a fourth-ball duck.Nicky Boje walked on 38 when he edged Michael Dighton to Buurman after adding 99 along with Sales. Sales blasted 62 from 58 balls but went when he smashed Dighton to Bukhari at mid on.White then hammered four sixes off Netherlands captain Peter Borren in the 30th over to reach 50 off 40 balls but he was bowled by Pieter Seelaar soon after. Northamptonshire captain Andrew Hall gifted Bradley Kruger his first List-A wicket by launching him to Seelaar at deep square-leg before Jonkman bowled James Middlebrook in the final overThe visitors chase got off to a bad start when Tom de Grooth flailed at a Daggett delivery in the sixth over and was caught at first slip by Hall. Daggett struck again in his next over when Eric Szwarczynski edged to wicketkeeper Murphy before Tom Cooper, who faced three balls without scoring, played on to his stumps.Dighton, who struck an unbeaten 110 at Derby on Sunday, also went for a duck when he edged Jack Brooks to Murphy. Borren made 8 before slicing Daggett to Sales at second slip and David Wigley took out Kruger’s leg stump with his first delivery of the season to leave the Netherlands on 32 for 6.Boje trapped Buurman lbw before Zuiderent went by hitting Middlebrook to Daggett at deep mid-wicket. Boje wrapped up the Northamptonshire victory by having Bukhari caught at cover by Tripathi and Jonkman stumped by Murphy, after both had made 14.

The IPL has been caught in a controversy over details of the ownership structure of the Kochi franchise being made public by Lalit Modi, the league chairman

Cricinfo staff12-Apr-2010The IPL has been caught in a controversy over details of the ownership structure of the Kochi franchise being made public by Lalit Modi, the league chairman. The franchise owners, who bought the team last month, are believed to feel this is a breach of faith and have reportedly taken up the issue with the Indian board which, Cricinfo has learnt, is also unhappy with the situation.Modi has denied any breach of confidentiality. “All team owners of the IPL have been revealed in the past,” he told . “I don’t think there is anything to hide in it. We’re a public body.” Asked whether the BCCI had been in touch with him on this, he said, “That’s an internal matter – I don’t want to reveal what we discussed at the board level.”The ownership details were posted by Modi on his Twitter feed on Sunday afternoon, in response to questions from the public. According to his posts, the Kochi consortium break-up is: Rendezvous Sports 1%, Anchor 27%, Parinee [Developers] 26%, Film Waves Combine 12%, Anand Shyam 8%, Vivek Venugopal 1% with Rendezvous having an additional 25% free equity. That equity is held by Kisan, Shailender and Pushpa Gaikwad, Sunanda Pushkar, Puja Gulathi, Jayant Kotalwar, Vishnu Prasad, Sundip Agarwal.In his Tweets Modi has also posed questions about the Kochi stake-holders. “Who are the shareholders of Rendezvous. And why have they been given this 100’s of million dollars bonanza?”, read one tweet. Another read: “25% of Kochi team is given free to Rendezvous sports for life. The same equity is non-dilutable in perpetuity.What does that mean?”Modi’s revelations have clearly hurt the owners of Kochi. “It was not expected from a body like the IPL,” a senior member of the consortium told Cricinfo. “The documents are very clear that information submitted is confidential and cannot be revealed by either side.”The franchise now wants the IPL to reveal the ownership details of the nine other franchises. “What we are trying to say is the documents we have submitted to him are supposed to be kept confidential. But if he is letting out the information on our consortium then we would like to be informed of the details of all the owners of the IPL teams, including the individual shareholders, as he has done for us,” the source said.This is not the first time Rendezvous Sports World Private Limited, which bagged the ownership of the Kochi franchise last month for a bid of US$ 333.33 million, have run into trouble with the IPL. Last week they were asked to list the names of all the owners after the IPL found out that there were a few “secret partners” in the consortium. Consequently a reviewed agreement was signed by both the parties in Bangalore on Saturday night – and it was in this context that questions were put to Modi by the public on Twitter seeking the details.The Kochi consortium has worked hard over the past month to dispel the notion that they are a disparate team of individuals; they had worked on the plan for the last six months before deciding to make the move. The seriousness of their intentions can be gauged from the fact that no one backed out of the deal despite the original tender process being cancelled and rescheduled from March 7 to 21. The face of the bid the first time around was the Jaypee Group, but two weeks later Jaypee decided to opt out, forcing the other partners to re-organise things.

Stoneman top-scores with 63 in low-scoring final-day nerve-shredder in Cardiff

ECB Reporters Network20-May-2024Middlesex secured a two-wicket victory over Glamorgan in their Vitality County Championship match in Cardiff with Mark Stoneman top-scoring in a win that came right down to the last few overs on the fourth day.Glamorgan were miles behind in this match before 48 runs and five wickets from Mason Crane took them close to victory in a thrilling finish on the final evening.Middlesex looked to be cruising to victory before a collapse of four for 15 put them in real danger of defeat but they managed to sneak home to claim the win thanks to a 52-run stand for the penultimate wicket between Tom Helm and Jack Davies. This win gives Middlesex 21 points from this game with Glamorgan securing just two bowling bonus points.As was the case in the first innings, runs from Zain-ul-Hassan and Crane kept Glamorgan in the hunt in this match. The pair had been the top-scorers in Glamorgan’s under-par batting efforts on day one, and here they put on a stand of 61 to take the lead past 200.Zain was the first to go when he turned a ball into the leg side for an easy catch for Ryan Higgins off the bowling of Ethan Bamber for 34, the same score he managed in the first innings.Crane looked to take the fight to Middlesex as he batted with Andy Gorvin. The pair had put on another 17 runs when Gorvin gave a catch to point off the bowling of Luke Hollman. It was also Hollman who claimed the final wicket when he dismissed Crane for 48 with a thick edge that was well taken by wicket-keeper, Davies.Middlesex started their chase brightly with Sam Robson and Stoneman putting on a stand worth 65. Robson was the first wicket to fall when he was dismissed by Andy Gorvin for 31. He chopped the ball on to his stumps, the sixth time this had happened in this match as the two-paced nature of this Cardiff surface continued to make an impact.Crane got the ball to turn big once he was introduced to the attack and he made the next breakthrough when he spun one past an attempted sweep from Max Holman to bowl him for 28.Crane had a huge shout for lbw against Leus du Plooy which was turned down, but Harris got him in the very next over when he struck his pads in front and the umpire gave the decision in the bowler’s favour.Crane had Higgins caught behind for 1 and as the game headed into the final session the match it was nicely poised with Glamorgan needing six wickets on a pitch that was getting increasingly hard to bat on and Middlesex still 93 runs short of their victory target.Crane made another breakthrough when he had Nathan Fernandes caught at slip but the moment that created this thrilling finish was when Gorvin got Stoneman caught by Cooke for 63.Two wickets in two balls from Crane to dismiss both Toby Roland-Jones and Luke Hollman without scoring left this game on a knife edge before the ninth wicket stand between Davies and Helm took Middlesex to victory with just five overs left in the match.

Brothers Union and City Club remain winless after playing three matches each

Mohammad Isam22-Mar-2023Defending champions Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club are among the four clubs who have claimed full points with wins in all of their respective matches in the first week of this season’s Dhaka Premier League. The other teams who have gone unscathed are Abahani Limited, Prime Bank and Legends of Rupganj.Abahani climbed to second place after their six-wicket win over old rivals Mohammedan Sporting Club at the Shere Bangla National Stadium on Wednesday.Brothers Union and City Club remain winless after playing three matches each.

Best batters of the week – Mohammad Naim and Irfan Sukkur

Left-hand batters Mohammad Naim and Irfan Sukkur are currently on top of the batters’ charts. Naim’s unbeaten 110 was decisive in Abahani’s big win over Mohammedan. Brothers Union’s Tanzid Hasan made a run-a-ball 142 against Legends of Rupganj.Mominul Haque, playing for Rupganj Tigers, smacked a 41-ball 74 against Mohammedan.

Best bowlers – Elias Sunny and Alauddin Babu

Left-arm spinner Elias Sunny took a five-wicket haul against newcomers Dhaka Leopards, while Alauddin Babu took his five-for, which included a hat-trick, against Gazi Group Cricketers. Fast bowlers have had a good run so far – four other four-wicket hauls have all been by quick bowlers.

The close match – Legends of Rupganj vs Brothers Union

Legends of Rupganj beat Brothers Union by three wickets in a high-scoring match at the BKSP-3 ground. Rupganj chased down the target of 300 with eight balls to spare, with Chirag Jani top scoring with 94. Earlier, Tanzid scored 142 to take Brothers Union to 299 for 5.

Players to watch

Akbar Ali, the much-talked-about Under-19 World Cup-winning captain, started this DPL season with a fifty for Gazi Group Cricketers. He is the only big name from that 2020 batch to have not made it to the Bangladesh senior side yet, so Akbar will be looking at maximising his opportunities this season.

Gloucestershire secure victory despite Varun Chopra’s 154 but miss out on knockout spot thanks to NRR

ECB Reporters Network07-May-2019James Bracey scored his maiden one-day century to hand Gloucestershire victory over Essex, but it was in vain as his side exited the Royal London Cup.Batsman Bracey, who only made his format debut earlier in the competition, crashed a classy hundred from 86 balls to see Gloucestershire to a four-wicket victory. But wins for Middlesex and Somerset elsewhere meant the west country men failed to go through due to their lower net run rate.Essex, who were knocked out before the match having only managed two victories in the tournament, had posted 293 thanks to Varun Chopra’s third ton of this year’s competition.Gloucestershire began their reply confidently, although Miles Hammond rode his luck when he was dropped on 20 by Dan Lawrence on the square-leg boundary. Hammond, on the back of 95 against Sussex, only scored one more run before he was caught behind off Simon Harmer while aiming down the track, before Aaron Beard demolished Gareth Roderick’s stumps.Chris Dent and Bracey then settled the innings down and put Gloucestershire on track with the required run rate during an 117-run stand. Neither came across as overly aggressive but both accumulated with skill, both posting half centuries – Dent from 67 balls and Bracey from 51 balls, which included a firmly struck six down the ground.The partnership was broken when Dent walked following a low catch to Harmer at short midwicket and Graeme van Buuren and Jack Taylor followed in quick succession, skewing to mid-on and lbw respectively.Beard, on just his second List A outing, ended with figures of 3 for 51 as he had Ryan Higgins well caught by Harmer running around to cover.
Gloucestershire still needed 86 from 9.5 after that wicket but Bracey maturely ticked the runs off along with Benny Howell, who had a runner after injuring his hamstring in the field. Bracey ended with an unbeaten 113 but it was Howell who ended the game by carting Matt Coles for six over midwicket.Earlier, stand-in Essex captain Harmer won the toss and elected to bat on a good-looking wicket, which proved a tad sluggish as the match went on.Chopra enjoyed stands of 42 and 66 for the first and second wickets with Alastair Cook and Tom Westley but both partnerships were ended by run outs. Cook was called through for a quick single after flicking to square leg, before Westley greedily attempted a third run – both comfortably short of their ground after van Buuren’s throws.Lawrence and Ravi Bopara both departed quickly, the former handing Bracey his maiden professional wicket and the latter bowled through the gate by Tom Smith.Essex looked below par at 147 for 4 but they still had Chopra, who owed his team-mates, and he carried the innings – bringing up his half-century in 70 balls. The opener continued his sluggish pace as he ticked over three figures in 129 deliveries during an 83-run stand with Rishi Patel, who scored 26 before edging behind when trying to whoosh down the ground.That wicket saw Chopra kick on with power – demonstrated with sixes down the ground and over deep square-leg – and deftness with paddle sweeps, as he passed through 150 in 163 deliveries. He fell a few balls later, finishing his season with 421 runs from five innings.The hosts looked set for a push for 300 but Essex lost five wickets in the last six-and-a-half overs to stutter to the innings break, and Gloucestershire maintained the momentum to complete their chase with seven balls to spare.

It does not take much to get fans excited about a possible return to form for the Lancashire prodigy

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Apr-2019It may have been against a bunch of students, and in a match lacking first-class status, but it does not take much to get England fans excited about a possible return to form for Haseeb Hameed. Having reaching his double-hundred on Friday, Hameed was finally dismissed on the second morning of Lancashire’s warm-up match against Loughborough MCCU for 218.The Loughborough attack had a grand total of 11 first-class wickets between them, but Hameed showed the commitment to ruthless accumulation that marked him out as a teenager, batting for more than six hours and facing 336 deliveries after coming in at No. 3.Picked by England at 19, Hameed’s form subsequently fell away dramatically. After a dreadful 2018 summer, when he averaged 9.70 from 17 innings for Lancashire – with a top score of 31 – his efforts at the university ground in Loughborough will encourage the hope that he can interest the selectors again.England’s Test team remains unsettled, with little certainty around the likely top three to face Australia during the Ashes later this summer. Keaton Jennings, Hameed’s Lancashire team-mate, was dropped in the Caribbean, before making an unsuccessful return in the third Test against West Indies, while Rory Burns averages 25.00 and Joe Denly has only played two Tests. Any signs that Hameed could push his case would doubtless be welcomed.Hameed was seemingly destined for great things when he broke into the Test team in 2016, becoming the fifth-youngest man to debut for England. He scored two half-centuries in six innings against India before a hand injury ended his tour early, but then suffered a prolonged slump that saw him slip out of contention as Jennings and then Mark Stoneman stepped in to partner the now-retired Alastair Cook.Lancashire are due to open their Championship campaign against Middlesex at Lord’s next week, when Jennings will also be looking to hit the ground running against an attack that could feature a pair of potential Ashes candidates in Steven Finn and Toby Roland-Jones.

Conscious of the need to compete with other T20 leagues, Cricket Australia will explore having separate funds to encourage the biggest names to sign up

Daniel Brettig18-Feb-2019A ring-fenced marquee fund to attract overseas players to the Big Bash League is under strong consideration by Cricket Australia as the governing body begins its debrief of a tournament that expanded enormously in 2018-19 while also raising numerous red flags in terms of crowds, broadcast audiences and scheduling.BBL clubs and broadcasters are both adamant that more needs to be done to bring in major names such as AB de Villiers, Eoin Morgan and Andre Russell in an increasingly competitive global T20 marketplace, with each group raising the issue in recent weeks.ESPNcricinfo understands that CA will explore the option of creating a separate marquee fund for overseas players, outside the general BBL salary cap of AUD1.77 million and similar to that used by the A-League in concert with Fox Sports. This would serve to close the yawning gap that has opened up in terms of potential remuneration for players coming to Australia relative to the Bangladesh Premier League and Pakistan Super League, to name but two of the competitions on the circuit.ALSO READ: Big Bash team of the tournamentWhile any such fund is unlikely to be large enough as to compete dollar for dollar with other leagues that are defined by privately-run franchises and the deep pockets of many of their owners, the ability to offer international marquee names a contractual figure somewhat closer to those available elsewhere will bring in other pull factors such as Australia’s weather and lifestyle that had attracted numerous high profile players in the past.The questions of how the marquee fund would work, and how players would be distributed among the clubs – perhaps via the use of a draft based on finishing positions from the previous tournament – remain to be answered. CA’s previous use of extra marketing funds to sweeten deals for the likes of Shane Warne and Kevin Pietersen has been raised by clubs, with the qualification that any new fund must apply more equitably to all.

The BBL debrief

How to attract more of the best overseas players
Length of the tournament
The best structure for the finals
Ensure high-quality pitches

Other areas in which the BBL will be the subject of plenty of review discussion will include its 60-day running time, a stretch that many players and coaches thought too long relative to the number of matches, not least the coach of the champion Melbourne Renegades team, Andrew McDonald.”I think I have formed some strong views around it,” McDonald told Radio. “I think it went too long in terms of time frame. We saw it sort of peter out coming to the business end. I think it lifted again for the Grand Final but the semi-finals I think were sort of somehow lost. If you weren’t probably working in the industry you didn’t realise that they were on.”I think the 14 games was magnificent. I think the opportunity that creates for the younger players, we see it in the IPL as well, where younger Indian players get an opportunity throughout a 14-game season, I think we saw that with the younger Australian players coming in, the Sam Harpers, the Mackenzie Harveys for us, and I think that’s great that those guys are getting opportunities and that will accelerate their development and fast track them where they need to get to.ALSO READ: Renegade Boyce atones for unceremonious Hurricanes exit“I think there’s a lot of positives that go with 14 games. We had a couple of seven, eight-day breaks that didn’t make a lot of sense at the back end and made it difficult really to be fair. We sent players home, guys were going back to their home states for three or four days and coming back in. So we would have liked that accelerated a little bit at the back end.”Kim McConnie, the head of the BBL, said ahead of a final watched by 40,816 spectators and a combined average broadcast audience of 1.14 million that the Sydney and Melbourne markets both needed more attention. “The reason we shifted to a full home and away season was to make sure we are a sport for all Australians, and in order to be a sport for all Australians, you need to play in all parts of Australia,” McConnie told .”We also knew that it wasn’t going to be about average attendances. We also knew that it was going to take fans a while to catch up…that we’d end up with smaller crowds at some games. And we’re OK with that. It’s going to take us a couple of seasons to push that back up. Because this is only our eighth year, we’ve got the luxury of time.”The challenges we see are in our two-team markets. As we look at it, there are a couple of isolated areas where in big major cities, we’re just competing against so much more, it’s a little bit harder for us to pick up that momentum. There’s a little bit more work to do in Sydney and Melbourne to build the fan base back up again.”There is also a strong lobby by numerous clubs to change the finals series format from two semis and a final to a system whereby the top two teams get a double chance. “The finals is one of the things that we’re going to review first,” McConnie said. “We’re going to see if this finals structure is the best structure. There’s definitely momentum for the top team getting a second chance.”

A majority of county chairmen want the Blast to be expanded as part of the changes to English professional cricket from 2020

Matt Roller21-Aug-2018The Vitality Blast group stage could be extended from 14 to 16 games because county chairmen are lobbying to rid the competition of its existing uneven format and maximise revenue in the process.Since 2014, each side has played seven home games in the group stages, meaning that they miss out on hosting one team, and counties are pushing for change both for competitive and commercial reasons.The change would likely come into effect for the 2020 season, when the Blast will become the secondary short-form competition in English domestic cricket after the introduction of The Hundred.ESPNCricinfo understands that the vast majority of counties would support a change to eight home games per season, with a majority of 12 required.For commercial reasons, the game counties miss is not identified as one of their most lucrative with derby matches gaining particular protection.For example, Middlesex play their London derby against Surrey home and away every year, but have missed a home fixture against Glamorgan and Kent every other year since the current format’s introduction.Other traditional rivalries – Lancashire v Yorkshire, Gloucestershire v Somerset, and Sussex v Hampshire – are also played twice every season.The group stage of the domestic twenty-over competition did last 16 games in its previous guise as the Friends Life T20 in 2010 and 2011, when the schedule was widely criticised for being too long. Some games were played in front of extremely sparse midweek crowds in those seasons.However, attendances have continued to rise in recent seasons – over 900,000 people went to a domestic T20 game in 2017 – and counties are keen to host an additional game each.There had been suggestions that the Blast’s group stage would be cut to 10 games, with three groups of six instead of two groups of nine, from 2020 onwards, but it is unlikely that such a change would find support among counties for whom T20 cricket is a vital source of income.The Blast would start in mid-May – around six weeks earlier than it did this year – and run through to mid-July, with the One Day Cup expected to follow, running alongside the Hundred.One competition must suffer a fall in standard when The Hundred raids the country’s best players for the eight-team format and the working party set up to make proposals as to the structure of the game, under the chairmanship of Leicestershire chief executive Wasim Khan, seems poised to conclude that the 50-over competition should take the hit.Meanwhile, the prospect of a conference format being introduced for the County Championship is understood to have diminished sharply.It had previously been reported that counties backed the idea of removing the current system of promotion and relegation in favour of three groups of six followed by play-offs between teams in different groups, but support for the idea has waned.

A round-up of the Ranji Trophy Group B matches on October 30, 2015

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Oct-2015
ScorecardFile photo – Jiwanjot Singh was the only batsman to pass 50 on either side•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Seventeen wickets fell on the opening day in Patiala even as Punjab secured the first-innings lead.Electing to bat, Andhra were shot out for 80 in 45 overs, with only opener DB Prasanth (33) passing 20. The visitors slumped to 22 for 3 and never recovered from the poor start, as Punjab’s spin trio of captain Gurkeerat Singh (11-5-14-4), legspinner Sarabjit Ladda, who took five wickets in the last game, and left-armer Rajwinder Singh picked up eight wickets between them. Seamer Siddarth Kaul claimed the other wickets to fall.Punjab started well in their reply with opener Jiwanjot Singh and Uday Kaul putting on 58 runs for the second wicket. But after Uday was trapped lbw by Prasanth, who took three wickets with his leg breaks, Punjab slid from 73 for 1 to 119 for 7. Jiwanjot resisted for more than two and a half hours before being bowled by Prasanth with less than four overs to go for stumps.Andhra vice-captain Prasanth said the surface was “underprepared”, but wasn’t particularly difficult to bat on. “It’s rank turner obviously, but if you have confidence on your defence you can easily negotiate,” Prasanth told ESPNcricinfo. What the pitch did today it will do the same thing tomorrow. There is not much cracks… it is not opening at all. We will fight hard tomorrow to get into the game.”
ScorecardB Indrajith’s second first-class hundred held Tamil Nadu’s innings together after they were inserted in Delhi.Tamil Nadu didn’t have the best of starts, as opener B Aparajith was bowled by seamer Anureet Singh in the seventh over with the team’s score on 6. But, captain Abhinav Mukund and Dinesh Karthik put on 61 runs before seamer Ranjit Mali dismised him
Abhinav fell one short of his 50 and then Vijay Shankar was dismissed by Anureet to reduce the visitors to 101 for 4.Indrajith, coming in at No.5, first put on 79 runs for the fifth wicket with R Prasanna before raising 78 runs in the company of J Kousik. Indrajith remained unbeaten at stumps while Anureet picked up three wickets.Tamil Nadu vice-captain Indrajith said the pitch was even-paced and good to bat on despite some movement off the surface throughout the day. “It tends to ease out once you settle down and is good for the batsmen. [A total of] 350 is ideal, but we would like to get more than 400,” he said. “Whenever they bowled short, the run-scoring opportunities opened up and it made things easy for me.”Indrajith said there were a couple of “soft dismissals”, but credited Anureet with bowling consistently well through the day.
ScorecardUttar Pradesh recovered from a wobbly beginning to post a decent total after electing to bat in Valsad.After the visitors were reduced to 87 with 4, with Umang Sharma and Mohammad Saif being dismissed in the space of two overs, Himanshu Asnora and captain Eklavya Dwivedi added 61 runs. After Dwivedi and Ali Murtaza were removed by Jasprit Bumrah, Asnora put on 58 runs. Asnora then went on to raise 43 runs for the ninth wicket in the company of Saurabh Kumar, and remained unbeaten.Rush Kalaria picked up three wickets for Gujarat.
ScorecardBaroda’s bowlers stifled Madhya Pradesh after the visitors opted to bat in Vadodara. Madhya Pradesh were reduced to 4 for 2 in the fourth over after both the openers, Aditya Shrivastava and Jalaj Saxena, were dismissed for ducks.Captain Devendra Bundela and Rajat Patidar, however, added 73 before Bhargav Bhatt had Bundela lbw. Patidar and Harpreet Singh added 50 runs for the fourth wicket. Swapnil Singh then struck twice to reduce Madhya Pradesh to 127 for 5 before the middle-order showed some resistance.