Rayudu gives Baroda a fine start against Raina and Co
RANJI TROPHY Even on a spinners friendly track, hosts trio failed to impress
LUCKNOW: Instead of regular 16, hosts and former champions Uttar Pradesh chose to pick their best 12 for the season’s last Ranji Trophy match against Baroda. The list included all three slow ball specialists like Team India discard Piyush Chawla, China man Kuldeep Yadav and orthodox bowler Saurabh Kumar on spinners-friendly turf at the Sports Complex Ground in Noida.
The trio bowled 46 overs in unison, including the highest 25 by Saurabh alone, but to no avail as they could share three wickets between them. This, however, allowed visitors off to a flying start on Day One of their Group B match on Tuesday.
While playing as a professional for Baroda, Team India’s T20 batsman Ambati Rayudu made full use of the slow wicket and hammered an unbeaten halfcentury to see the side scoring 242 for five. Opener Aditya Waghmode (56, 113b, 6x4, 1x6) too cracked a half-century.
Before coming to this match in his previous three matches this season, Rayudu had 47 as his best in the first innings in the match against Gujarat, but on Tuesday he looked altogether a different batsman against a ‘toothless’ UP bowling. His 184ball unbeaten 70 was studded with seven boundaries and a six. At the draw of stumps, Rayudu was at the crease and giving him company was Irfan Pathan (18).
UP’s highest wicket taker this season and Team India discard seamer Praveen Kumar remained the pick of bowlers, bagging two wickets for 34. He started with a bang, trapping opener Kedar Devdhar (0) on the very fifth ball of the first over after Baroda chose to bat first after winning the toss.
Praveen also had other opener Waghmode later, but by that time the left-hand batsman along with HH Pandya (31, 53b, 3x4) resurrected the innings before the latter was dismissed by Saurabh Kumar in the 20th over.
Waghmode then joined hands with Rayudu and helped the side cross the 100-mark before being trapped in front of wicket by Praveen as Baroda slipped to 108 for three. Rayudu then shouldered the innings well, stitching together 55-run with Deepak Jagbir Hooda (30) for the fourth and later added 49-run with Yusuf Pathan (31) for the fifth wicket to take Baroda across the 200-mark.
PUNJAB IN COMMAND
DINDGUL (TAMIL NADU),: Visitors Punjab took firm control of their Group B Ranji Trophy cricket match after bowling out Tamil Nadu for a meagre 68 and then extending their first-inning lead to 174 runs, as a staggering 21 wickets fell by the wayside here .
Punjab, who chose to bat after winning the toss, lost wickets at regular intervals to be all out for 206 in 57 overs at the NPR College Ground on day one of the match.
DT Chandrasekar (3/43), Malolan Rangarajan (2/67) and Rahil Shah (2/68) were the main wicket-takers for the visiting side. Out of favour India player Yuvraj Singh top-scored for Punjab with 49 off 63 balls.