Published: Oct 22, 2015, 08:30 AM (IST)
Edited: Aug 31, 2016, 03:01 PM (IST)
Hello and welcome to CricketCountry’s live coverage of Day 1 of the Group A game of the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy between Vidarbha and Assam, live from Jamtha, Nagpur. Despite their outright defeat against Odisha in their previous match — a low-scoring encounter at Cuttack — Assam still sit smugly at second place on Group A with 10 points from 3 matches, just behind Delhi’s 14. Vidarbha are tied with Bengal and Rajasthan with 4 apiece; the three teams are above only Haryana (1). Though the sides are equal on points, Bengal have played a match less, and have the highest quotient. Vidarbha (0.733), however, are slightly ahead of Rajasthan (0.644) in terms of quotient. However, in Wasim Jaffer and Subramaniam Badrinath they boast of two domestic giants, while Assam have their own surprise packages in Krishna Das, Syed Mohammad, Arun Karthik, and if he is fit, Abu Nechim Ahmed. Complete coverage of Ranji Trophy 2015-16
Live cricket scores Vidarbha 1/0| Assam 206| Overs 2| Batting: Wasim Jaffer 0(1), FY Fazal 1(11): Vidarbha were just able to open their account before the umpire announced end of day’s play. Wasim Jaffer and FY Fazal are on the crease. They have responsibility to give Vidarbha a good start to ease out pressure on the middle order batsmen and also to avoid exposing them to the new ball since the ball is doing a lot right now.
Live cricket scores Assam 206| Overs 87| Batting: Krishna Das 0(4): Assam lose their last two wickets without adding a run. They are all out for 206 which is a poor first innings score against a decent team like Vidarbha. Umesh Yadav and AA Wakhare took four wickets each. It will be interesting to see how Vidarbha reply esp. the approach of their openers. Let’s see whether Wasim Jaffer comes out better in the fourth round of this tournament having not performed well in the first three matches of the tournament. OUT! Syed Mohammed c JM Sharma b AR Sarvate 69(139), Arup Das c SU Shrivastava b AA Wakhare 1(38)
Live cricket scores Assam 206/8| Overs 84.2| Batting: Syed Mohammed 69(137), Arup Das 1(32): Assam fans will be happy that their last two batters have taken them past 200 but they will be deeply saddened on the overall performance of their team in the match so far. This ninth wicket partnership between Syed Mohammed and Arup Das is now worth 33 runs. Syed is batting on 69 with the help of seven boundaries. Arup Das is doing the right thing by just hanging on the wicket and leaving the scoring to Syed.
Live cricket scores Assam 173/8| Overs 72| Batting: Syed Mohammed 40(89), Arup Das 0(2): Kunal Saikia is stumped on AA Wakhare’s ball. Assam have lost wickets like bicycles tumbling in a cycle stand. Syed Mohammed is 10 short of his fifty. Arup Das is the new batsman at the crease after the fall of Kunal Saikia. OUT! Kunal Saikia st JM Sharma b AA Wakhare 24(79)
Live cricket scores Assam 131/7| Overs 54| Batting: Syed Mohammed 12(40), Kunal Saikia 10(22): Assam are in danger of getting all out for under 150. Umesh Yadav has come back stronger in this spell picking two wickets. Arun Kathick struck five boundaries and a six in his short knock of 35. Arup Das and Krishna Das are next to come. Assam’s tail is not strong but let’s see if they are able to take them to a score of around 180. OUT! KB Arun Kathick lbw Umesh Yadav 35(54), Tarjinder Singh lbw AA Wakhare 0(4), Sarupam Purkayastha c SU Shrivastava b Umesh Yadav 3(23)
Live cricket scores Assam 106/4| Overs 38| Batting: KB Arun Kathick 35(50), Tarjinder Singh 0(2): Amit Verma is stumped by JM Sharma on the bowling of AA Wakhare.Verma and Arun Kathick’s partnership was worth 59 runs. However, Verma did score his half century before getting out. Assam are now batting on 106 having lost four wickets. OUT! Amit Verma st JM Sharma b AA Wakhare 57(117)
Live cricket scores Assam 94/3| Overs 32| Batting: Amit Verma 48(93), KB Arun Kathick 32(37): Assam are batting on 93 having lost three wickets. Amit Verma is just two short of his fifty. He has struck eight fours and one gigantic six so far. Arun Kathick is batting at the other end on 32. Two of Assam batters— Amit Verma and Arun Kathick got out for a duck. Assam requires this partnership to grow. It is worth 47 runs till now. Umesh Yadav has taken two of the three Assam wickets which have fallen so far. OUT! Pallav Kumar Das lbw AR Sarvate 10(56), Rishav Das lbw Umesh Yadav 0(3), Gokul Sharma c A Shanware b Umesh Yadav 0(6)
Toss: Assam, who chose to bat
Playing XI:
Vidarbha: FY Fazal, SU Shrivastava, AA Wakhare, AA Sarvate, S Badrinath (C), Ganesh Satish, JM Sharma (W), SS Ruikar, Wasim Jaffer, Umesh Yadav, A Shanware
Assam: Gokul Sharma (C), K B Arun Karthick, Amit Verma, Arup Das, Krishna Das, Pallav Kumar Das, Rishav Das, Sarupam Purkayastha, Syed Mohammed, Tarjinder Singh, Kunal Saikia (W)
Assam’s fairytale season started when Syed Mohammad bowled out Karnataka for 187 on Day One at Guwahati before Assam secured a 4-run lead. Set to chase 388 they were reduced to 40 for 3 before Arun Karthik stepped in, batting 258 balls to score 115* and save the match. Rajasthan were bowled out for 186 and 84, again at home, Krishna Das taking 5 for 32 and 5 for 23, and Karthik batting 315 balls for his 151. The Odisha match was a bizarre affair, where Assam were bowled out for 92, secured a 4-run lead, set a 142-run target, and lost by 8 wickets.
Vidarbha started their tournament against Odisha at Nagpur. Though Aditya Shanware scored 119, the blitz came down the order from Umesh Yadav, who slammed 128* from 119 balls. Vidarbha reached 467 after being 293 for 8. Akshay Wakhare took 9 wickets in the match, but Odisha lost only 16, and were saved. They conceded a paltry 4-run lead to Delhi at Kotla, but lost outright after being bowled out for 98 in the second innings. They also missed out on a first-innings lead against Karnataka at Chinnaswamy. The hosts scored 350 before bowling out Vidarbha for 310.
Squads:
Vidarbha: Subramaniam Badrinath (c), Amol Ubarhande (wk), Ganesh Satish (wk), Wasim Jaffer, Shalabh Shrivastava, Faiz Fazal, Aditya Shanware, Ravi Jangid, Dharmender Ahlawat, Swapnil Bandiwar, Aditya Sarwate, Jitesh Sharma, Yadavendra Tembhare, Ravikumar Thakur, Shrikant Wagh, Akshay Wakhare.
Assam: Gokul Sharma (c), Arun Karthik (wk), Kunal Saikia (wk), Abu Nechim Ahmed, Syed Mohammad, Amit Verma, Bikash Chetri, Krishna Das, Arup Das, Pallav Das, Pritam Das, Rishav Das, Swarupam Purakayastha, Sibsankar Roy, Tarjinder Singh.
