New Delhi: Double centuries by Hyderabad and Bengal skippers — Akshath Reddy and Manoj Tiwary — against Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh, respectively lit up the second day of the ongoing Ranji Trophy competition on Tuesday. Reddy blasted an unbeaten 248, supported by Bavanaka Sandeep’s 130 to propel Hyderabad to a mammoth 523/7 against hosts Tamil Nadu in the Elite Group B tie at Tirunelveli.
In another Elite Group B match, Bengal skipper Tiwary remained unbeaten on 201 and with the support of Koushik Ghosh’s 100 guided the hosts to a massive 510/9 against Madhya Pradesh at the Eden Gardens. In reply, Madhya Pradesh openers — Aryaman Birla and Ankit Dane — went back undivided after scoring 15/0 at stumps.
In other Group B ties, Himachal Pradesh trailed Delhi by 101 runs at the Feroz Shah Kotla here, while Kerala trailed Andhra by 27 runs in Thiruvananthapuram. Himachal rode on all-rounder Rishi Dhawan’s 64 to crawl back from a top order collapse and end the day at 216/8 in response to Delhi’s first innings total of 316.
In Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala were comfortably placed at 227/1, thanks to an unbeaten 127 from opener Jalaj Saxena in reply to the visitor’s first innings total of 254, mainly centred around Ricky Bhui’s 109. In Group A, India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja’s unbeaten 178 helped Saurashtra reach 344/8 at stumps and gain a crucial 144-run first innings lead over the Railways’ 200 at Rajkot.
In Valsad, Gujarat rode on brilliant centuries by Manprit Juneja (107) and wicketkeeper Dhruv Raval (116) to post a massive 538/7 declared before their bowlers took two quick wickets to reduce Chhattisgarh to 53/2 at stumps. In Vadodara, Maharashtra reached 253/8, to trail hosts Baroda by 69 runs while in Nagpur, Karnataka found themselves struggling at 208/5, and still trailing by 99 runs against Vidharbha’s first innings score of 307.
Coming to Group C, Goa rode on Snehal Suhas Kauthankar’s unbeaten 106 and healthy contributions from the top order to reach a commanding 422/7 against Jammu and Kashmir at Porvorim. In another Group C tie, Assam bowled Tripura out for a meagre 139 in response to their first innings score of 327, before reaching 5/0 in their second innings at Agartala.
In Bhubaneswar, Uttar Pradesh rode skipper Akshdeep Nath’s undefeated 151 to pile up 361/6 and take a handsome 105-run lead against hosts Odisha, while the Services took a lead of 219 runs by reaching 127/4 in their second essay against Rajasthan in Jaipur. The hosts were earlier bowled out for a meagre 136 in response to the visitors’ first innings score of 228 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
In the other Group C tie, Jharkhand made light work of Haryana to beat them comprehensively by nine wickets at Rohtak. In Plate Group, Arunachal Pradesh gained a massive 329-run lead over Northeastern rivals Mizoram in Assam’s Jorhat while hosts Nagaland trailed Sikkim by 98 runs in Dimapur. In the other two Plate Group matches, Meghalaya trailed hosts Puducherry by 228 runs while Manipur took a slender 52-run lead over Uttarakhand in Dehradun.