Madhya Pradesh recovered from the loss of two cheap wickets to advance to 254 for 4 at stumps on the first day of their five-day Ranji Trophy quarter final against Bengal at the Brabourne Stadium here on Wednesday.
Half centuries from opener Aditya Shrivastava (65), Naman Ojha (64) and no. 6 Harpreet Singh Bhatia (51 not out) and an unconquered 42 not out from experienced campaigner and skipper Devendra Bundela pulled the MP innings around from 39 for 2.
A century partnership of 102 for the third wicket between Shrivastava and Ojha steadied the innings and then an unbeaten stand of 92 between Bundela and Bhatia consolidated MP’s position after they were asked to bat first by Bengal skipper Manoj Tiwary on a track with a tinge of green on it.
MP lost in-form prolific opener Jalaj Saxena in the fourth over and then lost Rajat Patidar in the 21st over before recovering through the century partnership between Shrivastava and Ojha.
Saxena, who came into the quarter finals after scoring 530 runs in the league stage of the competition, was caught at point cutting the first ball of Veerpratap Singh’s second over.
Then Shrivastava and Patidar exercised caution in lively conditions to crawl their way to 39 in the 21st over when the one-down batsman chopped Bengal’s first change seam bowler Sayan Mondal on to his stumps after making 17 off 56 balls.
This brought together wicketkeeper Naman Ojha and Shrivastava who went about repairing the innings, starting cautiously before lunch, which was taken at 83 for 2 in 33 overs, and then opening up in the second session with some fluent shots on either side of the wicket.
Their partnership of 102 for the third wicket in 164 balls was broken by left arm spinner Pragyan Ojha who had Shrivastava, who struck 8 fours in his 142-ball knock, caught flicking at short mid wicket by a diving Shreevats Goswami.
Ojha, who batted confidently and hit 10 fours in his 119-ball innings, departed 10 overs later by stretching out defensively to Veerpratap and edging the medium pacer to Tiwary in the slip region, to leave MP at 162/ 4.
Bengal were smelling blood at this stage and another wicket could have opened the floodgates, but it was prevented by MP’s vastly experienced captain Devendra Bundela and his slightly more aggressive fifth wicket partner Harpreet Singh Bhatia.
The duo was unseparated in a tea score of 166 for 4 in 59 overs and continued to bat without much trouble post tea to take the score past the 200-run mark in the 70th over.
It was no surprise when Tiwary summoned the second new ball as soon as it was due when MP were 235 for 4.
But the move did not pay dividends with Bundela and Bhatia batting confidently against the trio of Bengal medium pacers.
Veerpratap was the most successful of the Bengal bowling attack to return figures of 2 for 5 while Ojha and Mandal secured a wicket each.
But, much to their disappointment, Bengal’s main strike bowler Ashok Dinda, who had grabbed 31 wickets in the league stage, did not taste success after bowling 20 overs.
Unadkat’s five rattle vidarbha
Vizianagaram: Saurashtra took firm control as India discard Jaydev Unadkat grabbed a five-wicket haul to skittle out Vidarbha for a paltry 151 on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy quarter-final, here on Wednesday in the quarterfinal match.
After Unadkat’s 5/70 saw Subramanium Badrinath’s side being bowled out in just 50.4 overs, Saurashtra batted cautiously to end the day at 70 for one in 30 overs.
Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara Pujara looked in good touch as he remained unbeaten on 45 from 71 balls with nine boundaries to his credit.
With the wicket easing out, Pujara looks set for a long haul and Saurashtra will be aiming to outbat the opposition.
Giving Pujara company is the other opener Sagar Jogiyani, who consumed 87 balls to remain undefeated on 19.
Earlier, Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah opted to field as he wanted his seamers to make good use of the initial help available from the ACA Sports Complex pitch.
Within the first 15 overs, Saurashtra lost three wickets, including the dependable Ganesh Sathish (21) with Unadkat’s pace bowling partner Hardik Rathod getting two of the three scalps and Unadkat the other one.
Badrinath (17) and old warhorse Wasim Jaffer (41) then tried to do some damage control adding 33 runs before the Vidarbha skipper was bowled by medium pacer Chirag Jani.
Jaffer was clipping anything on his legs to the boundary and there were seven of them in his 41 before he was caught by Kamlesh Makvana off Deepak Punia.
The lower half was taken care of by Unadkat, who were not able to handle his controlled swing bowling as he hit the right length to trouble the opposition.
Yadav steers Mum to 303/6
Mysore: Mumbai rode on Akhil Herwadkar’s ton and a half-century by Suryakumar Yadav to post a decent 303 for six at close of play on day one of their quarter-final clash against Jharkhand here on Wednesday in the quarterfinal match.
Electing to bat, Mumbai lost opener Jay Bista (9) early, but the other opening batsman Herwadkar joined hands with Shreyas Iyer, who scored a brisk 45, to put on a solid 70-run stand and bail the team out of trouble.
Even after Iyer’s dismissal, Herwadkar continued to play hit shots and in the able company of Yadav, who took Mumbai’s score past 200-run mark. The two shared a crucial 136-run partnership for the third wicket in the match.
Yadav scored 75 off just 70 deliveries that included nine fours and two sixes, while Herwadkar’s played a patient knock of 107 that came off 217 balls and had 12 hits to the fence. But Yadav’s dismissal triggered a mini collapse and Mumbai suddenly lost a few wickets in quick succession.
From 227 for two at one stage, Mumbai were reeling at 303 for six at stumps. For Jharkhand, pacer Jaskaran Singh (2/57) and left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem (2/96) picked up two wickets each.