Baroda, Railways share honours on Day 1

The day belonged to no one, yet it belonged to both the teams. While Baroda managed to put 271 runs on the board despite their batsmen failing to convert their starts into big scores, Railways also claimed seven wickets irrespective of a couple of dropped catches and unresponsive pitch. However, at the end of the day, if they found the glass half-empty instead of half-full, it was just a matter of perspective.

Overall, it was an interesting day of play at the Karnail Singh Stadium on Tuesday with both the teams trying to take the control of the match.

Match started with 15-minute delay due to poor visibility in the morning but Railways maintained a good over-rate and bowled one over more than the required 90.

Medium pacer Anureet Singh provided the early breakthrough when he removed opener Saurabh Wakaskar (0) in the third over. And there could have been more had Railways fielders not spilled the chances that came their way.

“We were in a good position. We could have removed them today only had we taken those catches,” Railways captain Mahesh Rawat rued.

Baroda’s one-down batsman Kedar Devdhar (80) played a positive brand of cricket getting runs at a good pace as he put up a 107-run stand for the second wicket with captain Aditya Waghmode (41).

Devdhar’s back-foot play against left-arm spinner Ashish Yadav was excellent. The Baroda batsman punished the Ashish through point region whenever he erred in the length of the ball.

Baroda were 110 for 1 in 38 overs and  looked set for a big score but part-time off-spinner Arnab Nandi’s three quick wickets stemmed their progress. Within a span of five overs, Baroda found themselves struggling at 136 for 4.

Yusuf Pathan (38) promised a special knock with a couple of lusty blows to Nandi but he quickly fade away as Ashish’s second spell, where he took two wickets, proved fruitful for Railways.

His younger brother Irfan Pathan (30) too raised hopes of Baroda’s revival when his cover drives seemed to have come from a confident in-form batsman.  However, when Anureet’s away going delivery took the outside edge of Irfan’s bat, it meant that one more Baroda batsman frittered away the start.

What helped Baroda stay afloat in the match was their depth in batting. Pinal Shah and Swapnil Singh, who are unbeaten, put on 40 runs towards the end of the day to take their team to a competitive total.

“It’s not a bad score but we would have liked one or two of our batsmen playing a big knock,” Baroda coach Tushar Arothe said.

Brief Scores

Baroda: 271/7 in 91 overs (Kedar Devdhar 80, Aditya Waghmode 41, Yusuf Pathan 38, Irfan Pathan 30; Arnab Nandi 3/68, Ashish Yadav 2/51, Anureet Singh 2/45) vs Railways.