Ranji Trophy: Mukund puts Tamil Nadu in strong position
December 13th, 2011 - 8:30 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, Dec 13 (IANS) Centuries by Abhinav Mukund and Subramaniam Badrinath have put Tamil Nadu in the driver’s seat against hosts Gujarat on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Division Tuesday.
Mukund, who missed out on a berth in the Indian Test squad for Australia, has once again proved why he is one of the frontrunners for the coveted slot after ending the day unbeaten on 150.
Mukund and Badrinath (102) steered Tamil Nadu to 288/2 at stumps. They shared a stand of 223 runs after opener Murali Vijay was out early.
At Kolkata, Delhi are in a spot of bother after losing 8 wickets on the first day with the score on 252. Ashok Dinda starred with the ball taking four wickets. A gritty 79 by Shikhar Dhawan was the saving grace for Delhi. Bengal, who are languishing at the bottom of the points table in Group B, are desperate for a win while Delhi too are battling hard to book their place in the knockouts.
Defending champions Rajasthan, playing at home, are in a strong position against Saurashtra. The hosts were 369/7 after the first day’s play courtesy centuries from Vineet Saxena (127) and Puneet Yadav (108), however, a four-wicket haul by Siddharth Trivedi provided some respite for the visitors.
Group A leaders Karnataka could manage to take only four Punjab wickets with the score on 278 when stumps were called. Sarul Kanwar (89) and Karan Goel (71) impressed on the first day at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. In a lacklustre bowling effort by the home team, Neravanda Aiyappa was the only bowler who troubled the batsmen.
Brief scores:
Elite Division
Group A:
At Delhi: Railways 204/5 in 90 overs (Shivakant Shukla 96, Sanjay Bangar 46; Biplab Samantray 2-32) vs. Orissa
At Lucknow: Mumbai 203/3 in 62.1 overs (Sushant Marathe 102, Kaustubh Pawar 76; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2-64)vs. Uttar Pradesh
At Bangalore: Punjab 278/4 in 91 overs (Sarul Kanwar 89, Karan Goel 71; Neravanda Aiyappa 2-30) vs. Karnataka
At Jaipur: Rajasthan 369/7 in 89 overs (Vineet Saxena 127, Puneet Yadav 108; Siddharth Trivedi 4-69, Jaydev Unadkat 2-60) vs. Saurashtra
Group B:
At Kolkata: Delhi 252/8 in 80.3 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 76, Rajat Bhatia batting 59; Ashok Dinda 4-64, Iresh Saxena 2-37) vs. Bengal
At Ahmedabad: Tamil Nadu 288/2 in 90 overs (Abhinav Mukund batting 150, Subramaniam Badrinath 102; Ishwar Chaudhary 2-61) vs. Gujarat
At Rohtak: Madhya Pradesh 278/3 in 90 overs (Naman Ojha 160, Zafar Ali 38; Harshal Patel 2-41) vs. Haryana.
- Ranji Trophy: Mukund's double ton takes Tamil Nadu to 693/8 - Dec 14, 2011
- Ranji Trophy: Delhi take slender lead against MP - Dec 07, 2011
- Ranji Trophy: Nehra bags six wickets, double ton for Yadav - Nov 30, 2011
- Ranji Trophy: Rajasthan hand Saurashtra crushing defeat - Dec 16, 2011
- Ranji Trophy quarters: Chopra, Yagnik, Pawar, Dewan hit tons - Jan 03, 2012
- Rajasthan in driver's seat in Ranji Trophy final - Jan 22, 2012
- Rajasthan hand Hyderabad innings defeat (Ranji Trophy round-up) - Nov 03, 2010
- Ranji Trophy: Saurashtra well placed against Railways - Dec 22, 2011
- Ranji Trophy: Wickets tumble on opening day of semi-final ties - Jan 10, 2012
- Ranji Trophy: Tiwary, Pandey, Menaria slam double hundreds - Nov 18, 2011
- 18 wickets crash in Railways-Saurashtra Ranji match - Dec 21, 2011
- Ranji Trophy: Ganguly scores century against Haryana - Dec 01, 2011
- Ranji Trophy: Ravindra Jadeja strikes triple ton against Orissa - Nov 04, 2011
- Buchi Babu cricket: Jadeja claims 8 as batsmen make merry - Aug 23, 2011
- Tamil Nadu draw Bengal in Ranji Trophy - Dec 04, 2010
Tags: badrinath, chinnaswamy stadium bangalore, dhawan, division group, elite division, four wickets, frontrunners, indian test, kanwar, kaustubh, mukund, playing at home, puneet, ranji trophy, sanjay bangar, saxena, shukla, test squad, trivedi, wicket haul