The fifth round of the Ranji Trophy produced a number of compelling performances on Friday. Here are the key takeaways.
Dube celebrates elevation in style
On his part, Dube celebrated his elevation with a backs-to-the-wall 72 on a greenish deck at Eden Gardens in a Group B fixture against Bengal. Last week against Uttar Pradesh, Dube struck his third first-class hundred, while he opened the season with 51 against Kerala.
Dube came in to bat at 87 for 4, and hauled Mumbai out of trouble with 144-run stand with Suryansh Shedge, who made 71. Shedge was handed a debut only because Rahane, who was slated to play the game, complained of pain in his right hamstring prior to the start of the match.
This is the second game Rahane has had to miss this season. He’d earlier missed the opening game against Bihar in Patna due to a stiff neck.
Mumbai’s lower order then drove home the advantage further to end the opening day on 330 for 6, with Tanush Kotian (55) and Atharva Ankolekar (41) at the crease.
Inexperienced Karnataka stumble on 16-wicket day
Without Mayank Agarwal, who is recuperating from a brief hospitalisation, and Devdutt Padikkal, who is away with India A, Karnataka’s inexperienced top order wasted strong starts. Nikin Jose, the new captain, had a tough initiation as he was out first ball. Jose has managed to get into double figures only twice in eight innings so far this season. This includes a score of 107 against Goa in a drawn fixture.
Juyal, Karan power Uttar Pradesh
Juyal, UP’s first-choice wicketkeeper in Dhruv Jurel’s absence, has been in excellent form lately. Both his first-class hundreds have come this season. He also has a half-century alongside those. Karan, meanwhile, has carried forward his stellar form from the previous game, where he battled injury to put it past Mumbai in a tense chase.
Anmolpreet, Prabhsimran flatten Chandigarh
Sai Kishore leads by example for resurgent TN
In the plate group, Agni Chopra couldn’t quite replicate the kind of form he’s shown in the first half of the season. That a score of 43 is being spoken about as a regulation performance is only because he came into the game on the back of five hundreds for Mizoram in his first four first-class matches.
