Left-arm spinner Manan Sharma made light of a finger-injury and took five wickets as the Delhi bowlers took their time to finish the job against Assam for a victory with an innings and 83 runs in the campaign-opener of the Ranji Trophy here on Sunday.
Trailing by 396 runs in the first innings, last season’s semifinalist Assam resumed its second innings at 100 for three and folded at 313, less than half an hour before the scheduled tea-break. The big win worth seven points, including a bonus, also helped the young Delhi team avenge the surprise five-wicket loss suffered at Guwahati last season.
“We did think about the defeat suffered to Assam and took this match as a ‘payback’ time,” said Manan after taking five for 108 for his fifth five-wicket haul in the championship. “With the ball coming off a bit slowly off the surface, I had to bowl a bit faster than I did in the first innings. Batting was easy on the last two days and we had to be patient.”
For new coach K. P. Bhaskar, too, it was a good start. The former Delhi batsman was pleased with the result but quickly praised the rearguard action by Assam’s middle-order batsmen, particularly Syed Mohammad. The left-hander scored an attacking 82, with 10 boundaries and two sixes, and played his part in two half-century partnerships.
“I think Mohammad played his strokes freely and made the bowlers do some rethinking. Our young team was confident that even if the victory came a bit late in the day, it would surely be achieved,” said Bhaskar.
On the other hand, the manner in which some of the well-set batsmen tossed away their wickets left Assam’s new coach Sunil Joshi worried.
“This is one area where we need to work on. After getting the start, some of the batsmen had to carry on but they didn’t. We surely missed the services of the off-spin of Swarupam Purkayastha. I am sure he will soon recover from the knee-injury,” pointed out Joshi.
Assam lost the overnight pair of Amit Verma and Arun Karthik with just 21 runs added to the overnight tally. Much depended on this duo but their dismissals put Delhi firmly in control.
But thereafter, Tarjinder Singh and Syed Mohammad added 78 runs for the sixth wicket before Manan lured the former to his doom. What followed was another partnership of 72 runs between Mohammad and Purkayastha. But the second new-ball provided the breakthrough before Manan brought an end to Assam’s fight.
The scores (round one, day four)
Group A
At Jaipur: Baroda 544 for eight decl. drew with Gujarat 555 for four in 178 overs (Manpreet Juneja 201 n.o., Axar Patel 110 n.o., Bhargav Merai 70, Rujul Bhatt 58 retired hurt , Samit Gohil 43); Points: Gujarat (3), Baroda (1)
At New Delhi (Palam): Railways 331 & 245 for seven decl. in 81.2 overs (Saurabh Wakaskar 57, Shivakant Shukla 97, Mahesh Rawat 48, Vinay Choudhary three for 63) drew with Punjab 215 & 170 for three in 58 overs (Uday Kaul 61 n.o., Mandeep Singh 41 n.o., Jiwanjot Singh 33); Points: Railways (3), Punjab (1)
At Hyderabad: Madhya Pradesh 465 bt Uttar Pradesh 176 & 225 in 99.4 overs (Tanmay Srivastava 93, Sarfaraz Khan 49, Chandrakant Sakure six for 40); Points: Madhya Pradesh (7), Uttar Pradesh (0)
Group B
At Vizianagaram: Saurashtra 430 drew with Rajasthan 105 in 38.4 overs (Manender Singh 44, Shaurya Sanandia six for 14) & 30 for four in 14 overs; Points: Saurashtra (3), Rajasthan (1)
At Visakhapatnam: Odisha 150 & 274 for nine decl. in 102.1 overs (Govinda Poddar 58, Sandeep Pattnaik 40, Ranjit Singh 35, Subhransu Senapati 34, Deepak Behera 31 n.o., Akshay Wakhare three for 61) drew with Vidarbha 272 for six decl.; Points: Vidarbha (3), Odisha (1)
At New Delhi (Karnail Singh stadium): Maharashtra 210 & 188 lost to Jharkhand 306 & 93 for four in 19.5 overs (Virat Singh 33 n.o.); Points: Jharkhand (6), Maharashtra (0)
At Vadodara: Assam 193 & 313 in 96.3 overs (Syed Mohammed 82, Sarupam Purkayastha 47, Tarjinder Singh 42, Rahul Hazarika 40, Amit Verma 35, K.B. Arun Karthick 34, Manan Sharma five for 108) lost to Delhi 589 for eight decl.; Points: Delhi (7), Assam (0)
Group C
At Bhubaneswar: Himachal Pradesh 357 drew with Andhra 167 for one in 59 overs (D.B. Prasanth Kumar 93 n.o., Hanuma Vihari 68 n.o.); Points: Himachal Pradesh (1), Andhra (1)
At Nagpur: Goa 164 & 258 in 86.1 overs (Sagun Kamat 55, Saurabh Bandekar 51, Snehal Kauthankar 34, Rituraj Singh 30, M. Ravi Kiran three for 40) lost to Hyderabad 388 & 35 for one in 5 overs; Points: Hyderabad (6), Goa (0)
At Mumbai: Services 197 & 329 for six decl. in 104.3 overs (Nakul Verma 78, Shamsher Yadav 70, Ravi Chauhan 60, Anshul Gupta 40, Soumik Chatterjee 33) drew with Haryana 248 & 136 for one in 36 overs (Nitin Saini 101 n.o.); Points: Haryana (3), Services (1)
At Kalyani: Kerala 304 drew with Jammu & Kashmir 121 in 44 overs (Adil Reshi 40, Iqbal Abdulla three for 36, K.S. Monish four for 9) & 91 for four in 31.3 overs (Shubham Khajuria 39 n.o.); Points: Kerala (3), J&K (1)
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