Bengaluru: Centuries by young batters Sudip Gharami and Suved Parkar were the highlight of Day 1 of the quarterfinals of Ranji Trophy matches being played across four venues in Bengaluru.
Bengal and Mumbai laid the foundations for strong totals against Jharkhand and Uttarakhand respectively while Saurabh Kumar and Shivam Mavi shared seven wickets between them to help Uttar Pradesh gain an early advantage against Karnataka.
However, Punjab started well against Madhya Pradesh but lost the momentum after captain Abhishek Sharma got out when the score was 98.
Bengal’s batters Gharami and Anustup Majumdar played brilliantly to guide their team to a big total as both scored freely against Jharkhand’s meager bowling attack after being put into the bat. Gharami scored a fine century while Majumdar needs just 15 more runs to get to his century.
Abhimanyu Easwaran and Abhishek Raman put on 88 runs for the first wicket before the latter retired hurt. At the end of Day 1, Gharami is unbeaten on 106, while veteran batter Mujumdar is only 15 runs away from his century.
In another quarterfinal match debutant Suved Parkar, who received his Mumbai cap from W.V Raman at the start of the day, shone with a sparkling 104 not out on an opening day.
Prithvi Shaw (21 off 20) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (35 off 45) started the innings with a flurry of boundaries, compiling 36 runs inside the seventh over before both the batters fell to Deepak Dhapola. Armaan Jaffer and Parkar then added 112 runs for the third wicket. Mumbai ended Day 1 with 304/3 with in-form Sarfaraz Khan, who scored 69 not out off 104, and Parkar at the crease.
In the match against Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh bowlers Saurabh Kumar and Shivam Mavi shared seven wickets between them to help the team gain an early advantage on the first day.
Karnataka started their proceedings well as seasoned Mayank Agarwal and R Samarth put on 57 runs for the first wicket. This was the only thing for them to remember as they managed only 213/7 on the first day. However, Manish Pandey and K. Siddharth put on a half-century stand to revive the side, but both the batters were undone by Saurabh’s superb spell in the middle overs.
Punjab’s decision to bat first looked good against Madhya Pradesh, but after the early departure of captain Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill, the team never looked in a good position. However, with sensible batting by Sanvir Singh who scored 41 off 84 at No 7, Punjab managed to get to 219. In reply, MP batted just one over before stumps were called.
Brief score (quarterfinals):
Bengal 310/1 (Gharami 106 not out, Majumdar 85 not out; Mishra 1-75) vs Bengal
Mumbai 304/3 (Parkar 104 not out, Sarfaraz Khan 69 not out; Dhapola 3-53) vs Uttarakhand
Karnataka 213/7 (Samarth 57; Saurabh 4-67, Mavi 3-40) vs Uttar Pradesh
Punjab 219 (Abhishek 47, Anmolpreet 47, Sanvir 41; Datey 3-48, Anubhab 3-40) lead MP 5/0 by 214 runs
–IANS