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Cheteshwar Pujara scored his third triple-century of the season on day two of the second round of Ranji Trophy matches, as Chetan Narula reports.
Orissa 46 for 0 trail Saurashtra (620 for 4) by 574 runs: Scorecard
Triple-centuries seem to be becoming a penchant for Cheteshwar Pujara as he scored his third of the season on the second day of his team’s match against Orissa. He had scored two in one week last month in the CK Nayudu Under-22 tournament, and today he pushed from his overnight 128 to become the first Saurashtra batsman to make a triple ton in the Ranji Trophy.
He was partnered in the run-fest by Ravindra Jadeja who scored his maiden century and was unbeaten on 232, in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand worth 520 runs and the record breaking duo scored 347 runs in 72.5 overs on the second day. It was the second-best partnership in Indian cricket after Vijay Hazare and Gul Mahomed's 577-run stand for Baroda against Holkar way back in 1946-47 and the highest fifth-wicket partnership in any first-class cricket, beating the unbroken 464-run stand between the Waugh twins for New South Wales against Western Australia in 1990-91.
The hapless Orissa openers played out the remaining 15 overs without any loss but it seems an uphill task from here.
Rajasthan 133 and 57 for 6 trail Punjab (232) by 77 runs
Punjab took a vice like grip on their match against Rajasthan who were staring at their second consecutive defeat after their batsmen yet again failed to get going. They were tottering at 22 for 7 on the first evening itself but the lessons were still not learnt as following on and still trailing by 129, Rajasthan's second-innings performance was equally inept and at 57 for 6 they still needed 72 runs to make Punjab bat again.
Gagandeep Singh and Manpreet Gony were Punjab's stars on the first day and they reprised their roles in the second innings as well taking three wickets in the first four overs in Rajasthan's second innings. Left-arm spinner Ankur Kakkar took the remaining wickets in a six-over spell of 3 for 6 and Rajasthan will now rely on their lower order that had earlier pushed them to 133 in their first innings, to save further blushes.
Gujarat (77 for 6) trail Mumbai (486) by 409 runs: Scorecard
The wheels seemed to be coming off Gujarat at Surat on the second day of their match against Mumbai as 14 wickets fell in the entire day’s play. Gujarat offspinner Mohnish Parmar triggered a collapse to restrict Mumbai resumed at 327 for 2 but collapsed to 486 all out as off spinner Mohnish Parmar took six wickets to give his team a chance. Wasim Jaffer batting on 172 overnight, failed to add to his score as the Mumbai batsmen squandered the chance of extending their advantage.
But any hopes that Gujarat had to follow on their victory over Saurashtra wer dashed when Dhawal Kulkarni's four-wicket burst left the hosts in a slump at 77 for 6 at stumps. Kulkarni took 13 wickets on his Ranji Trophy debut last week and further increased his tally in the tournament to boost his team's chances of a win as he was ably supported by Ajit Agarkar and Sairaj Bahutule, both taking a wicket each.
Uttar Pradesh (251 for 8) lead Baroda (235) by 16 runs: Scorecard
Uttar Pradesh recovered from a shaky start of 9 for 3 in reply to Baroda's 235 to take the all important first-innings lead in Vadodara. Irfan Pathan took 5 for 71 as Baroda tried their best to restrict the opposition in a bid to get the three points for themselves but half-centuries for Tanmay Srivastava and captain Mohammad Kaif first brought the visitors to safety and then useful 30s from Ravikant Shukla and Praveen Kumar gave last season's finalists the edge before stumps.
Pathan dismissed Praveen Gupta and Tahir Abbas off successive deliveries on the second morning- both were out for ducks as well as Anshul Kapoor, the previous evening – before Kaif and Srivastava revived the innings with a 122-run fourth-wicket partnership.
Delhi (124 for 3) trail Hyderabad (334) by 210 runs: Scorecard
Delhi found themselves in a precarious position at the end of the day’s play, submitting their position of strength by losing two quick wickets just before stumps were drawn. Openers Aakash Chopra and Shikhar Dhawan put on an 80-run stand but both were unable to convert their starts to something big as medium-pacer Ashwin Yadav took 2 for 15 in his ten overs.
Earlier Hyderabad could add only 87 to their first-day score of 247 for 5, all out for 334, as Pradeep Sangwan took two wickets, including that of overnight centurion Anoop Pai for 130, and there were two run-outs as well with Hyderabad scoring at less than two an over on the second day.
Maharashtra (205 for 1) trail Andhra (348) by 143 runs: Scorecard
Maharashtra looked set to take a first innings lead on the third day after a solid all round performance on the second day against Andhra at Nasik. Harshad Khadiwale made 103 and Rohan Bhosale was not out on unbeaten 72 as the duo added 158 runs for the first wicket after Andhra were bowled out for 348.
Andhra, resuming on 262 for 6, lost three wickets in 20 overs for 38 runs before they were boosted by a last-wicket stand also of 38. Samad Fallah finished with 6 for 102, while Bangladesh left-arm spinner Enamul Haque Jr. finally grabbed his first Ranji wicket.
Karnataka 82 for 1 trail Tamil Nadu (531) by 449 runs: Scorecard
S Vidyut fell just seven short of a deserved double hundred after he had punished the Karnataka bowlers ruthlessly on day two at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Beating his personal best, Vidyut took Tamil Nadu to a position from where they can call the shots in the game hereon.
Karnataka’s problems were compounded with their captain Robin Uthappa on a drip as he spent more than half of day one off the field because of a viral fever and thus their inexperienced batting line-up faces a tough ask of getting anywhere close to Tamil Nadu's huge first innings. They did start well however, batting out 27 overs for the loss of just one wicket.
© Cricket World 2008
