Dube claims all four wickets as hosts Karnataka pile up 263/4

BELGAUM:ROOKIE Krishnamurthy Siddharth hit his maiden first class hundred, an unbeaten 104, to guide Karnataka to 263 for 4 against Mumbai on day one of the Elite Group A Ranji Trophy match here on Tuesday.

Electing to bat first, the hosts lost their openers Dega Nischal (27) and Shishir Bhavane (5) cheaply to Mumbai’s right-arm medium pacer Shivam Dube, who grabbed all four wickets that fell to end the day with fine figures of 4 for 32. The other Mumbai bowlers had an off day.

In the absence of mainstays Karun Nair and Manish Pandey, 25-year-old Siddharth stood up and shouldered the responsibility to help Karnataka recover after the loss of their openers at the KSCA Stadium here.

Siddharth, who had a forgettable outing in the game against Vidarbha, made up that failure. In his 184-ball stay at the wicket so far, the batsman has struck 13 boundaries and two sixes.

Karnataka were struggling at 2 for 59 when one-down Mir Kaunain Abbas (64) and Siddharth (104 not out) rallied the innings.

The duo stitched a 104-run stand for the third wicket to frustrate the visitors with Abbas hitting 10 fours in his 154-ball knock to play the ideal foil to Siddharth. But when Karnataka looked poised for a big score, Dube struck again for his third wicket as he removed a well-settled Abbas, who was caught by wicket-keeper Aditya Tare.

Stuart Binny (3) also did not last long as he became Dube’s fourth victim.

But then Siddharth found an able partner in Shreyas Gopal (batting 47) as the fifth-wicket pair ensured that the hosts did not lose another wicket. The two have put on an unbroken 88-run partnership.

HYDERABAD PILE 232/2

HYDERABAD: After failing to gain full points against Himachal Pradesh in the previous round, Delhi again had backs to the wall with hosts Hyderabad reaching 232 for three at stumps on the first day of their Group B match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Tuesday.

Delhi bowlers had failed to bowl out Himachal in over 100

overs in the last game and the weak bowling again failed to look threatening. Hyderabad’s lefthanded opener Tanmay Agarwal was unbeaten on 112. He shared a 135-run partnership with No. 4 Himalay Agarwal who scored 66.

Delhi tried as many as seven bowlers and only left-arm spinner Vikas Mishra, two wickets for 61, and seamer Gaurav Kumar, one for 30, could find success.

Otherwise, it was a hard grind for the last year’s finalists.

Delhi are without experienced batsman Gautam Gambhir, who is out with a shoulder injury.

JAFFER’S 54TH CENTURY

NAGPUR: While the last year’s finalists Delhi struggled, there were no such problems for defending champions Vidarbha with veteran Wasim Jaffer (batting 131) and Faiz Fazal (batting 124) taking team to 268 for one at the end of first day’s play against Baroda.

This is Jaffer’s 54th first-class and 38th Ranji century.

SHAMI STRIKES EARLY

KOLKATA: Australia-bound Mohammed Shami picked one for 19 in five overs but his side Bengal faced an uphill task against Kerala. Bengal were dismissed for 147 with IPL star Basil Thampi taking four for 57 and M D Nidheesh finishing with three for 22, which included key wickets of Bengal top-scorer Anustup Majumdar (53) and skipper Manoj Tiwary (22).

Seven of Bengal batsmen failed to get to double digits scores and capped five ducks, including that of opener Koushik Ghosh and number three Sudeep Chatterjee. Kerala were 35 /1 when bad light stopped play.

JIWANJOT HITS TON

INDORE: Jiwanjot Singh hit an unbeaten 123 as Punjab moved to 253/4 on the first day of their match against MP.

Punjab were struggling at 20 for two before Jiwanjot resurrected their innngs with partnerships with Mandeep Singh (30) and Gurkeerat Singh (66).