Visitors Punjab took firm control of their Group B Ranji Trophy cricket match after bowling out Tamil Nadu for a meagre 68 and then extending their first-inning lead to 174 runs, as a staggering 21 wickets fell by the wayside here on Tuesday.
Punjab, who chose to bat after winning the toss, lost wickets at regular intervals to be all out for 206 in 57 overs on day one of the match. D T Chandrasekar (3/43), Malolan Rangarajan (2/67) and Rahil Shah (2/68) were the main wicket-takers for the visiting side.
Out of favour India player Yuvraj Singh top-scored for Punjab with 49 off 63 balls.
When their turn to bat came, Tamil Nadu surrendered meekly to be bowled out in just 23.4 overs, with left-arm spinner Rajwinder Singh (6/29) doing the star turn.
Opening the bowling with Rajwinder, India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh bagged three for 30. J Koushik (30) was the only batsman to reach double digit in Tamil Nadu’s abysmal batting display.
At stumps, Punjab were 36 for one in their second innings.
Meanwhile, Australian John Ward who was umpiring the match suffered head injury when he was hit by the ball driven by Punjab batsman Rajwinder Singh.
According to police, the umpire fainted and was rushed to a hospital at Palani where his condition is stated to be serious.
The batsman was facing Chandrasekhar when he drove the ball which hit Ward, who was functioning as the main umpire.
Herwadkar, Yadav slam tons
Mumbai: Mumbai rode on unbeaten centuries from Akhil Herwadkar and Suryakumar Yadav to pile up 370 for 2 on day one of their Group B Ranji Trophy game against Gujarat at the Wankhede Stadium here on Tuesday.
Gujarat’s hopes of securing at least the first innings lead to enhance their hopes of advancing to the quarters took a beating as the hosts, surprisingly asked to bat first by visiting team captain Parthiv Patel, scored at more than four an over to grab the advantage.
left-handed opener Herwadkar remained unconquered at the end of the day with a patient knock of 143 off 257 balls, inclusive of 16 fours and a six.
He was lucky to be let off twice by wicket keeper and rival captain Patel before he reached 40s.
Yadav, at the other end, stroked his way to 103 not out off 159 balls — studded with 3 sixes and 9 fours.
The third wicket duo, who joined forces at the fall of one-down batsman Shreyas Iyer (75 off 69 balls with 10 fours and a six), had added 196 runs before stumps.
Earlier, put in to bat the home team — already assured of a berth in the last eight — raced to 74 before losing opener Jay Bista, edging left arm R P Singh to ‘keeper Patel, for a breezy knock of 44 that included six hits to the fence.
The ever-aggressive Iyer and Herwadkar then came together to stitch a partnership of 100 runs before the former lost patience and his wicket. In trying to glide Rush Kalaria over the wicket keeper’s head he managed only an edge to Parthiv.
Rajasthan struggling at 28/6
Jaipur: Rajasthan were reeling at 28 for six after bundling out Odisha for 151 in their first innings on the opening day.
Electing to field, Rajasthan’s pace combination of Aniket Choudhary (6/27) and Pankaj Singh (3/53) wreaked havoc as Odisha lost wickets at regular interval.
Rajasthan also had a disastrous start and ended the day on 28/6 and were still trailing by 123 runs with just four wickets remaining.