Ranji Trophy Group A: Abhishek Kaushik fifty gives Railways lifeline against Karnataka

Earlier in the day, the visitors added 40 runs to their overnight total before being all out for 247. Krishnakant Upadhyay took the last three wickets of Karnataka’s innings, taking his innings haul to seven for 98.

Compared to day one, more time was lost today due to lack of visibility at the Karnail Singh Stadium. Play could only start after lunch and the trend is likely to continue in the remaining two days, making the first-innings lead advantage all the more important.

Railways made a solid beginning after taking an hour to wrap up the opposition innings. Kaushik and Nitin Bhille (10) fought it out against a potent Karnataka pace attack and by tea the home team was 63 for one.

Heated words were exchanged between the close-in fielders and Railways batsmen right before the break and the usual on-field incident fired up the visiting side more in this case.

Stuart Binny bowled his heart out in the final session to get Karnataka back in the match. One of India’s World Cup probables cranked up decent pace on a helping pitch to finish with figures of 2 for 18 in eight overs.

Binny had Bhille caught at second slip the first ball after lunch. The Railways batsman could not do much against one that jumped and seamed off the greenish pitch. The medium pacer then trapped the in-form Arindam Ghosh (1) in front of the stumps to leave Railways at 67 for three.

Thereafter, the hosts withstood the sustained pressure created by India internationals Binny, Abhimanyu Mithun and Vinay Kumar until losing Kaushik close to stumps.

Anustup Majumdar (25 batting) was joined by Avinash Yadav (1 batting) in the middle when umpires decided the light was not good enough to carry on.

The match is nicely poised going into tomorrow but Binny thinks his team has the upper hand.

“The wicket is a bit up and down at the moment. You are never set on this wicket and that is why I think we are in a better position. It is a wicket on which you can score runs but you are never set, whether you batting on 40 or 60,” said Binny.

Brief scores: Karnataka: 247 all out in 82.3 overs (CM Gautam 64, Kunal Kapoor 53; Krishnakant Updadhyay 7/98), Railways: 106/4 in 36.5 overs (Abhishek Kaushik 59; Stuart Binny 2/18).

Shardul Thakur runs through Uttar Pradesh batting

After medium pacer Shardul Thakur’s inspiring spell of six for 53 helped Mumbai bundle out Uttar Pradesh for a meagre 206, they found themselves in trouble, being reduced to 42 for three on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Group A cricket match.

Brief scores: Uttar Pradesh 1st innings: 206 all out in 84.4 overs (Tanmay Srivastava 67, Prashant Gupta 41, Eklavya Dwivedi 23; Shardul Thakur 6/53). Mumbai 1st innings: 42 for three in 17 overs (Amit Mishra 2/13).

Madhya Pradesh take control against Tamil Nadu

Left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma grabbed four wickets in an impressive spell after his captain Devendra Bundela hit a century as Madhya Pradesh took control of their Ranji Trophy cricket match against Tamil Nadu on the second day.

Brief Scores: Madhya Pradesh 1st Innings: 432 all out in 142.4 (Jalaj Saxena 144, Devendra Bundela 104; Malolan Rengarajan 7/135). Tamil Nadu 1st Innings: 112 for 4 in 37 overs (Baba Indrajit 39, Abhinav Mukund batting 37; Ankit Sharma 4/60).

Rasool ton puts Jammu & Kashmir in driver’s seat

Parveez Rasool played a captain’s knock as his sixth first-class century propelled Jammu and Kashmir to a commendable first-innings score of 497 against Baroda in a group league encounter of the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament.

Brief Scores: J&K 1st Innings 497 in 145.4 overs (Parveez Rasool 136, Ram Dayal 124, Swapnil Singh 6/152). Baroda 1st Innings: 116/0 in 34 overs (Saurabh Wakaskar 60 batting, Kedar Devdhar 54 batting).