Blog - Duck for Shreyas, centuries for Jagadeesan and Hooda; Dayal takes four

Only once in the history of the Ranji Trophy have the top four batters of a side scored centuries - when Goa played Arunachal Pradesh in the Plate League of 2019-20 and all of Goa's top four reached triple-digits.

There have been only three double-hundreds for J&K in the history of Ranji Trophy. The last two were by the same batter - Ashwani Gupta's 203* against Bihar 22 years ago (2002-03) and his 210* opposite Himachal Pradesh in 1994-95.

Here are the highlights if you already had plans for this Saturday and actually went ahead with them:

Chandigarh managed just 109 in reply to Railways' score of 142 before Upendra Yadav scored 142 to power Railways to 307 and set Chandigarh a massive target of 341. They've already lost one wicket - of captain Manan Vohra - and we'll most probably see a result here with two full days left.

Andhra were looking good on 114 for 1 to take the lead when they started the day in reply to Vidarbha's 118 from yesterday. They took a lead, but only of 49, after spinners Harsh Dubey and Akshay Wakhare induced a collapse of 9 for 39 and Andhra were rolled over for 167. Vidarbha's second attempt was led by the promising youngster Atharva Taide, who scored his fourth first-class hundred and has taken them to 192 for 1, with a lead of 143.

Led by an unbeaten half-century from captain Himmat Singh that followed a decent opening stand of 47 between debutant Sanat Sangwan and Anuj Rawat, Delhi end the day on 177 for 4, trailing by 166 in reply to the 343 scored by Chhattisgarh. In what was a more interesting start to the day, Ayush Badoni took 4 for 43; he had only two first-class wickets to his name so far from nine games.

Uttar Pradesh have a captain who is not even 23 - he'll get there in November - and after bowling out Bengal for 311, Aryan Juyal has led the hosts in Lucknow with a fighting and patient 90* to power them to 198 for 3, 113 runs in the deficit. Juyal has played for India Under-19 and was with Mumbai Indians as well at one point of time before he was let go. He was also out of action for a while because of an injury. All that and more can be read in this story by Nikhil Sharma.

The defending champions haven't put their best foot forward on the first two days of the new Ranji season. They started the day very well to roll over Baroda for 290 after their overnight 241 for 6, but Mumbai's famed batting line-up didn't live up to its name. Experienced left-arms spinner Bhargav Bhatt was responsible for that; he dismissed the 17-year-old Ayush Mhatre (52), captain Ajinkya Rahane (29), Shreyas Iyer for a duck and took a really good return catch off Mohit Avasthi. Baroda take a lead of 76 runs and they'll be chuffed about that.

Shardul Thakur's was the last wicket to fall after he suffered from cramps briefly. Let's see if he's 100% fit to bowl. Mumbai will come back to bowl for about five minutes.

Rajasthan were hardly in a soup in reply to Puducherry's 248, and their first attempt has been steered by captain Deepak Hooda, who is playing after five months and has scored his 12th first-class hundred. His hundred was studded with 12 fours and he would want to take his team into the lead when they resume on Sunday. Rajasthan are 234 for 6, trailing by only 14 runs at the end of the second day.

A wet outfield in Indore and play has been abandoned without a single ball being bowled at the Holkar Stadium despite there being sunlight in some parts of the day. There was overnight rain, inspection after inspection to check the lush, green outfield, the sun also baked the field, unlike in Greater Noida. The ground staff even rolled out a few table fans to try and dry the field through the day but nothing could make things happen.

If centuries from the top four - including a double - weren't enough, Mayank Dagar has smoked a 30-ball half-century studded with nine fours and a six before Himachal decide it's time to bowl and field to enjoy the views from the Dharamsala stadium.

Siddhesh Lad was playing his first Ranji Trophy game for Mumbai after nearly five years, having spent the last few years in Goa (playing for them, not lazying around on the beach). He played the Irani Cup too for Mumbai, but in this opening round Ranji game he has fallen for 8 after inside edging Akash Singh off a cover drive. Update: Akash Singh soon knocks over Tanush Kotian's stumps as well and Mumbai are in danger of conceding a lead to Baroda. They're 185 for 8, still trailing by 105.

Fun fact: Siddhesh Lad's father - Dinesh Lad - is a renowned coach in Mumbai and coached India captain Rohit Sharma too.

Himachal Pradesh are inflicting the kind of pain England inflicted on Pakistan recently. Except that Himachal are playing at home and they are making the most of it. Their top four batters have all scored hundreds - Shubham Arora 118, Prashant Chopra 171, Ankit Kalsi is closing in on a double-hundred, and Ekant Sen scored 101. They are 615 for 3 now after 159 overs against Uttarakhand.

You have to feel for them given all the politics behind the scenes and the back and forth with the Patna High Court. There are two factions in the Bihar Cricket Association, they wanted to name their own squads in the lead up to this season as well, and for no fault of theirs the players suffer. There were even going to be two trials before the squad announcement.

On the field, they have been bowled out for 78 and 133 in under 69 overs put together and suffered an innings defeat to Haryana in Lahli.

Jayant Yadav was the star for Haryana. He took two wickets in the first innings, top-scored with 55 as no team-mate of his went past 38, and then finished things off with a five-for.

Here's the round-up so far:

Saurashtra finally break through with a direct hit from Cheteshwar Pujara and they have removed the two well-set batters who put on 172 for the opening stand. Sai Sudharsan would have wanted a big score to be considered for the Australia tour, but 82 also counts before he fell short of his ground. Barely six overs later, local boy Jagadeesan edges one off Jaydev Unadkat and Tamil Nadu are 197 for 2, just six short of Saurashtra's 203.

Caught behind on his eighth ball after edging left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt, Shreyas Iyer has bagged his third duck in his last seven first-class innings! What a drought for the batter who lifted the IPL trophy a few months ago and was also part of the Test squad earlier this year.

Shreyas Iyer's scores in this first-class season: 0, 57, 8, 0, 50, 0, 41, 9 and 54.

The Mumbai captain was looking good in his stay of 50-plus balls. He rocked back for a short ball outside off from left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt and smacked it, but the ball went straight to JK Singh at silly point, who neither turned around nor duck for the powerful stroke. The ball got stuck between this thighs, he dare not spread his legs while trying to get his hands on the ball and he does so successfully to spark off wild celebrations for this unusual dismissal. Rahane reluctantly walks off and Mumbai are 140 for 4 after they also lost a set Hardik Tamore for 40 in the previous over. Mumbail still trail by 150 runs.

It's looking bleak outdoors in Indore because of the wet outfield.

He is known for his power-hitting in the UP circuit and Swastik Chikara, from the badlands of Ghaziabad, recently topped the run charts in the UPT20 League with a tally of 499 runs in 12 matches at a strike rate of 185.50, including a century (114) while playing for winners Meerut Mavericks. On his first-class debut, he opened today with his new captain Aryan Juyal and the duo put on 83 runs against the likes of Mukesh Kumar, Shahbaz Ahmed and Mohammed Kaif (Shami's brother). Chikara was the more attacking of the two, the highlight his slog sweep for six against Shahbaz Ahmed. He also scored heavily through the covers by creaming three fours in that area. But just like Mumbai's Ayush Mhatre fell to the experienced left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt some time back after hitting him for six, Chikara was trapped lbw by Shahbaz for 41 off 74.

Chikara is just 19 and is being called the next big thing ahead of the next IPL auction.

Talking of Aryan Juyal, here's all you need to know about UP's latest captain. The original interview with him was in Hindi and can be read here.

Fifty for Jagadeesan - check. Fifty for Sai Sudharsan - check.

Tamil Nadu have left the 150-mark also behind without losing a wicket today, in reply to Saurashtra's 203. By the time I check all the other 15 live scorecards for Ranji, they'll have taken the lead.

Ayush Mhatre is just 17 years and 88 days. He won't even have a driving license yet but he's driving and pulling reassuringly and powerfully against the Baroda bowlers on a turning track. He made his first-class debut in the Irani Cup but today is his Ranji Trophy debut. He saw through a very tricky opening spell from the zippy Krunal Pandya and once his eyes were set in, he smashed the experienced Bhargav Bhatt - exactly double his age - for a clean six over long-off. He attacked a bit too much, perhaps, and when he tried pulling Bhatt to leg with an attacking stroke, he landed a return catch off a leading edge. Gone for 52 off 71 and Ajinkya Rahane joins wicketkeeper-batter Hardik Tamore. Mumbai 83 for 2.

According to Mid-Day, Mhatre had scored his third double-century when he was just 14, in inter-school cricket in the Harris Shield tournament in 2022. Before that, his two unbeaten doubles came in the Giles Shield competition in 2019.

Soon after the lunch break, N Jagadeesan has scored his half-century as Tamil Nadu continue to boss Saurashtra with a century opening stand. His opening partner Sai Sudharsan had already crossed the milestone before the break.

Here are the highlights so far from the second day:

In this battle of two heavyweights, Tamil Nadu have started with a solid century opening stand between B Sai Sudharsan and N Jagadeesan in reply to Saurashtra's 203. The bowling attack is led by Jaydev Unadkat and Saurashtra have used four bowlers so far to try and get a breakthrough but these two are going along nicely with 13 fours already between them. Sai Sudharsan has played all around the wicket and gone past 50 first whereas Jagadeesan has scored a lot more on the off side.

Here's our Tamil Nadu specialist Deivarayan Muthu:

After TN's young bowling attack dismissed Saurashtra for 203 on the opening day in Coimbatore, Jagadeesan, the son of the soil, and Sai Sudharsan, the adopted son of Coimbatore, have guided TN past 100 in their reply on an overcast morning. Jagadeesan, who grew up playing cricket at the Sri Ramakrishna College ground, relishes playing at this venue. In five first-class innings in Coimbatore before this game, he had rattled off 652 runs at a whopping average of 163, including a career-best 321 against Chandigarh earlier this year in January. There's no place like home for Jagadeesan, who has now been promoted to TN's vice-captain. Sruthi Ravindranath spoke to Jagadeesan ahead of the start of India's domestic season.

Sudharsan is also a crowd favourite at the TNPL, having won the TNPL with Lyca Kovai Kings. Coimbatore is the home base for his franchise. With Bengal's Abhimanyu Easwaran pulling ahead in the race for India's reserve opening slot in Test cricket, Sudharsan needs to convert this into a big one to keep up with the other contenders.

His first IPL stint was with KKR, if I'm not mistaken, after he was bought for his bowling. But only some time back KC Cariappa blasted a 29-ball half-century for Mizoram against Sikkim in the Plate League. Mizoram are soon bowled out for 163 in reply to Sikkim's 191 after Cariappa falls for 51.

Prithvi Shaw and Ayush Mhatre had seen through the first eight overs nicely against the turning new ball from Krunal Pandya and Bhargav Bhatt. But at the end of the ninth, Krunal fires one in from around the wicket and sneaks the ball through the bat=pad gap from wide of the crease with pretty impressive drift towards middle stump and Shaw played the wrong line. Shaw gone for 7, Mumbai are 20 for 1.

As a kid I always thought Vijay Merchant and Vijay Hazare were brothers, thanks to Amitabh Bachchan in Namak Halal, but only one of them was born today. It's also a birthday for Rinku Singh, Ashok Mankad, Trevor Chappell, the younger brother of Ian and Greg, Fred Martin and Annabel Sutherland as well. You can read about them all here.

Mumbai must have rued the wicketless second session yesterday after they had Baroda at 90 or 5 at lunch. Today, they have taken just over 16 overs to take four wickets for 49 and finish Baroda off under 300. Shams Mulani and Shardul Thakur struck first before Tanush Kotian -fresh off a century in the Irani Cup - took the last two to finish with 4 for 61. Three for Mulani, two for Thakur and one for Mohit Avasthi.

So seven wickets for the spinners on a track offering turn and bounce although conditions have been mostly overcast with a rain interruption as well on Friday. Mumbai have stacked their XI with three spinners - there's debutant Himanshu Singh as well - as opposed to playing two in the Irani Cup. Mumbai will bat last here and spin could play a big role. Look at that - captain Krunal Pandya is opening the bowling for Baroda. In fact, there's spin from both ends with the tall and experienced Bhargav Bhatt from the other end. The openers are Prithvi Shaw and 17-year-old Ayush Mhatre.

Left out of the Test squad for New Zealand barely 12 hours ago, Yash Dayal has bagged four wickets against Bengal, who are bowled out for 311. Dayal had already taken one wicket with the new ball yesterday - of Abhimanyu Easwaran - and today he grabbed three more, again with the (second new ball). He swung one sharply into Shahbaz Nadeem (44) to trap him lbw, bowled Suraj Jaiswal with a searing yorker and banged one short into Mohammad Kaif to have him hole out at deep fine leg. Dayal finishes with 4 for 27 from his 14.2 overs.

Gujarat were 334 for 8 overnight in their away fixture against Hyderabad and they have wrapped up for 343 with their left-handed batter Manan Hingrajia, playing just his 16th first-class game, top-scoring with 181, his highest score.

In Chandigarh, Railways have managed a 33-run lead in the first innings by skittling Chandigarh for 109 in reply to 142. Chandigarh may not have had high hopes of taking a lead while going to bed because they were 87 for 7 with only Raj Bawa the frontline batter in the middle with Sandeep Sharma. They added just 22 more as left-arm spinner Akash Pandey grabbed two of the last three to bag his sixth five-wicket haul.

Ishan Kishan returned to the Ranji Trophy after two years and he has perished after a quick 21 off 32 after hitting three fours - one through the covers, one to deep square leg and one to deep third. Twenty-three of those 32 were dot balls, so a pretty usual Kishan knock before he was caught off medium-pacer Mukhtar Hussain.

Mumbai have a breakthrough against Baroda! And they have removed the well-set Atit Sheth for 66. He was in a century stand with Mitesh Patel last evening and was frustrating the defending champions. Mulani, who bowled 30 overs yesterday, came from around the wicket and trapped Sheth lbw. Mulani has three now and Baroda are getting close to 300.

Update: And just three overs later, comeback back Shardul Thakur traps Mahesh Pithiya lbw with an inducker. Baroda 270 for 8. Will they get 300? Soon after Nitin Patel raised the finger, there was a heated exchange between Thakur and Pithiya, not sure who started it though. Ultimately, the senior figure Ajinkya Rahane calmed Pithiya down and saw him off the field with his calm and composed nature.

Play has been delayed by wet outfield in Indore, where two recent Ranji Trophy champions Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka are battling it out. MP started batting on the first day and were 232 for 4 with Harpreet Singh Bhatia and Venkatesh Iyer closing in on a half-century stand. The next inspection is at 11am.

The Assam vs Jharkhand clash starts early because the sun rises and sets early in Assam, and we have some action there straightaway! Jharkhand have lost Virat Singh - last seasons's captain - early in the day for 26 soon after Kumar Suraj's fifty, and we have Ishan Kishan returning to the Ranji Trophy after two years. And he's off the mark with a boundary through the covers.

Before we move to the live games - a couple of them started early - a reminder of some Friday late-night shenanigans. The BCCI selectors named a 15-man squad for the three Tests against New Zealand and there was only one change in personnel - Yash Dayal left out - and another change on paper - Jasprit Bumrah named vice-captain after nobody held that position against Bangladesh. Strange, right?

I'm not going to read too much into Dayal's omission, even though it was being said he was being considered for the Australia tour because of his left-arm variety and seam movement. There's hardly a chance he'll get to play against New Zealand - like was the case against Bangladesh - so why not let him get some game time in Ranji Trophy? On the first day of the clash between UP and Bengal, he bowled 10 overs for 20 runs with the wicket of another India hopeful - Abhimanyu Easwaran - by having him caught behind. Dayal came around the wicket with the new ball, had the ball hold its line just a tad outside off and Easwaran edged it behind for 5.