Yuvraj fails, Gurkeerat leads Punjab’s recovery
NEW DELHI: Captain Yuvraj Singh fell cheaply in his Ranji Trophy season opener before Uday Kaul and Gurkeerat Singh led Punjab’s recovery against Railways on day two of the Group A match on Friday.
Punjab were reduced to 44 for four with Yuvraj’s dismissal before Uday (59*) and Gurkeerat (66*) steadied the ship with an unbeaten 110-run partnership. Yuvraj did not last long in the middle, scoring nine off 35 balls. Punjab, replying to Railways’ 331 all out, were 177 runs behind at close of play. Railways, starting the day from overnight 257 for five, added only 74 runs to the total. Punjab medium pacer Siddharth Kaul was the pick of the bowlers, ending with a fivewicket haul. Later, Uday and Gurkeerat showed maturity to bail their team out of a tough situation. Gurkeerat was the aggressor in the partnership, hitting 10 fours and a six. PTI
RANJI ROUNDUP
GROUP A
Railways 331 all out in 118 overs (Shukla 128, Yadav 81; S Kaul 5/68) vs Punjab 154/4 in 57 overs (U Kaul 59 batting, Gurkeerat 66); Baroda 1st innings 544-8 in 155 overs declared (D Hooda 118, A Waghmode 142; Axar Patel 3/136); Tamil Nadu 87 & 153/6 in 54 overs (A Mukund 56, W Sundar 40, V Gohil, 3/36) vs Mumbai 176 (A Tare 48, K Vignesh 5/41); Madhya Pradesh 465 (Harpreet Singh 216 not out, Ankit Sharma 61, Imtiaz Ahmed 3/58) vs Uttar Pradesh 131/5 (Gaurav Yadav 3/29)
GROUP C GROUP B
Odisha: 150 in 78.1 overs (B Samantray 53; S Wagh 3/13, A Wakhare 3/19) vs Vidarbha: 182/2 in 67 overs (F Fazal 76 batting, G Satish 74 batting); Assam: 193 all out (Tarjinder Singh 61 no; Sangwan 3/47) vs Delhi: 241/3 in 71.2 overs
(Chand 55, Rana 72*, Pant 84*); Maharashtra: 210 all out in 71.1 overs (A Bawne 78, K Jadhav 59; V Aaron 4/47) vs Jharkhand: 293 for 7 in 99 overs (Kaushal Singh 121 not out; A Sanklecha 3/60); Saurashtra: 430 in 97.3 overs (J Shah 193, S Jackson 76) vs Rajasthan 12/0 in 1.4 overs
Tripura 118 and 10/0 vs Chhattisgarh 1st innings 255 all out in 103.4 overs (Ashutosh Singh 140; Abhijit Dey 4/26); Goa 164 all out vs Hyderabad 188/4 in 63 overs (Reddy 105 batting; Rituraj Singh 2/35); Kerala 1st Innings 282/7 in 96.2 overs (S Samson 142 batting, M Krishan 12 batting) vs Jammu and Kashmir SUZUKA, JAPAN: Championship leader Nico Rosberg seized pole position for the Formula One Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday, the German marginally fending off Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton in a close-run qualifying session. Rosberg has led every session of the race weekend and confirmed his superiority around the Suzuka Circuit with a fastest lap of one minute, 30.647 seconds, just 0.013 seconds quicker than Hamiltononanovercastafternoon.
“I’m happy with the result in the end,” Rosberg told reporters. “I was going well the whole weekend and had a good balance in the car, feeling good, feeling comfortable so that’s what allows me to put in a lap like that in the end.”
Rosberg’s 30th pole position of his career was the German’s third in a row at Suzuka as Mercedes, who can wrap up a third successive constructors’ title on Sunday, claimed first place on the grid for the 52nd time in the last 54 races.
Starting from the front also gives Rosberg a golden opportunity to extend his 23-point lead over defending champion Hamilton