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A round-up of the preliminary finals played on February 11, 2017

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Feb-2017Canterbury defended 250 to seal their spot in the final of the Ford Trophy 2016-17. Wellington fell short of their target by 28 runs, but will get a second go at making the title bout on February 15 when they play Central Districts in the third-preliminary final. This is courtesy their top-of-the-table finish in the round-robin stage; the loser of the preliminary-final between Nos. 1 and 2 plays the winner of the preliminary-final between Nos. 3 and 4.Three wickets in an economic spell from fast bowler Matt Henry went a long way in ensuring Canterbury’s win. He claimed two of Wellington’s top three cheaply, before returning to end a feisty last-wicket stand between Brent Arnel and Hamish Bennett that had added 32 at over a run a ball. In between Henry’s strikes, several Wellington batsmen got starts but only Luke Ronchi managed to convert that into a half-century. Pacers Henry Shipley and Andrew Ellis were also incisive and economical, taking five wickets between them, to ensure Wellington never got away.Canterbury’s total was built around half-centuries from Chad Bowes and Todd Astle. They were wobbling at 10 for 2 after being inserted, but opener Bowes held the innings together with his 84. After he and Astle were out, another hiccup happened with two wickets in two balls (Ellis caught behind and Johnston run out in the 42nd over), but Cole McConchie ensured they did not slide with a swift, unbeaten 40. Canterbury were eventually bowled out with three balls to spare, most of the damage being done by the spin of Jeetan Patel and the new-ball pair of Arnel and Bennett. But their total of 250 proved more than enough in the end.Central Districts had only one win in their first six matches in this season’s Ford Trophy. They won their last two group games with bonus points and made the playoffs. Now they’ve won their first playoff, beating Northern Districts by 48 runs in New Plymouth, to be one step away from the final. They will need to beat Wellington – who lost only one match in the round-robin stage – on February 15, to have a shot at what had looked like a highly improbable title at one stage.Central Districts chose to bat and were propelled to 336 for 7 on the back of a maiden List A century from Tom Bruce and knocks of seventy-odd at the top and bottom of the order from George Worker and Kieran Noema-Barnett. Bruce and Noema-Barnett’s runs came particularly quickly; Bruce’s 100 came off 81 balls and included eight sixes, while Noema-Barnett’s 74 came off 49 balls. Amid the carnage, Northern Districts’ Scott Kuggeleijn and Ish Sodhi maintained economy rates under five, and shared four wickets between them.Northern Districts’ middle order made a decent fight of it, with three half-century partnerships in good time – going into the final 10, they needed 105 with six wickets in hand and two set batsmen at the crease. But then the bottom five managed only 16 runs among them to end the challenge. When they were bowled out for 288 in the 49th over, Kuggeleijn was left stranded on 85 off 52. Fast bowler Seth Rance and left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel were the most effective of the Central Districts bowlers, picking up three apiece in tidy spells.

England seamer says he struggled after calf problem forced him out of 2019 Ashes

George Dobell03-Aug-2021James Anderson has admitted he had to be talked out of retirement by his wife after a series of injury setbacks.Anderson managed just four overs in the 2019 Ashes after a recurrence of a calf injury ruled him out in the opening moments of the first Test. In the aftermath, he concedes he was struggling with the prospect of more rehabilitation work and it required the intervention of his wife, Daniella, to persuade him to continue.He has claimed 42 more Test wickets at a cost of 23.00 since then, becoming the only seamer in Test history to reach the milestone of 600 wickets.”A big reason I am still playing cricket is my wife,” Anderson said ahead of the first LV= Insurance Test against India at Trent Bridge. “She’s been really supportive.Related

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“When I pulled my calf in the first Ashes Test, it was the second or third time I had pulled my calf and I was really considering whether I wanted to go through the rehab again. She basically took us away on holiday and told me to stop being silly. She told me to carry on.”Of course there have been difficult moments. I think everyone goes through it playing professional sport, whether you are out of form, have a loss of confidence or if it’s injuries. There are all sorts of things you have to deal with. For me it’s about having a good support network: friends and family that you can rely on and lean on.”My wife has been really supportive. She wants me to keep playing; she encourages me to keep playing. She’s quite happy for me not to be around the house I think.”Despite his age – he celebrated his 39th birthday a few days ago – Anderson dismissed any suggestion that the next 10 Tests (five against India and five against Australia) could prove the finale of his career.”Absolutely not,” he said. “I feel like I’m bowling as well as ever. I feel great physically. I’m just looking forward to this series against India.”We’ll look at everything else once we’re past this. That’s something I’ve done really well throughout my career. But right now I’m bowling as well as I ever have and I’m really looking forward to this series.”James Anderson in action during England nets•Getty Images

Anderson has an excellent record at Trent Bridge. In 10 Tests at the ground, he has claimed 64 wickets at an average of 19.62 apiece with seven five-wicket hauls. He also made his highest score – 81 – here against India in 2014. While that Test may be best remembered for rumours of an altercation between Anderson and Ravi Jadeja as the players made their way to the dressing rooms after a session, it remains a ground upon which he has happy memories.”I do like playing here,” Anderson said. “I feel at home here. It is such a friendly place to play. The stewards and staff are incredibly friendly. It’s just somewhere I feel really comfortable.”In years gone by, swing has played a big part here. It’s a ground where you look up [at the atmospheric conditions] not down at the pitch. If there’s cloud cover or if it’s humid, it’s generally a good place to bowl. If there’s a bit of grass on the wicket it will carry to the keeper and slips.”While conceding the India battling line-up is “riddled with talent”, Anderson insists he is relishing the prospect of testing himself against them and Virat Kohli, in particular.”I’m definitely excited to play against him again,” Anderson said. “You always want to challenge yourself against the best in the world and he’s certainly that. We know how big a player he is for them both as a batsman and as captain, he has a huge influence on that team. So we know he’s a big wicket and to be honest I don’t care if I get him out. As long as somebody gets him out that’s the main thing. He’s an important wicket.”But I think challenging yourself against the best in the world is really exciting and their top six is riddled with talent. It’s going to be a big challenge for us seam bowlers.”

Lewis Gregory takes 4 for 26 as hosts are bundled out inside 41 overs shortly after lunch

ECB Reporters Network06-May-2021A fighting half-century from skipper Tom Abell helped Somerset build a 63-run lead over Hampshire on an eventful opening day at the Ageas Bowl that saw 15 wickets fall.Abell was unbeaten on 52 – guiding his side to 142 for 5 – after Hampshire were bowled out for just 79 having been put in to bat on a spicy pitch in chilly and cloudy conditions.Lewis Gregory was the pick of the Somerset attack, taking 4 for 26, as the hosts were dismissed inside 41 overs less than an hour after lunch.It was the first time since 1969 Hampshire had posted back-to-back sub-100 first-innings totals following last week’s 92 all out against Surrey at The Kia Oval.Related

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The home side started the day in third place in Group Two – one spot behind Somerset – and did well to only lose the in-form Ian Holland inside the opening hour. Holland departed for four when Gregory found the outside edge and Craig Overton took the catch at slip.But the second hour of the day proved to be a disaster for Hampshire as five wickets fell for 16 runs inside 11 overs with Tom Alsop, Sam Northeast, James Vince and Liam Dawson all posting single-figure scores.Opener Joe Weatherley top-scored for his side with a scratchy 20 but was guilty of running out Northeast for just four after he took a risky single and George Bartlett hit the stumps with a direct hit from cover.Gregory mopped up the tail 50 minutes after the lunch break having received excellent support from the admirable Overton and Josh Davey, who each picked up two wickets.The overhead conditions continued to favour the seamers in the afternoon session and Somerset fell to 11 for 2 inside four overs when new-ball pairing Keith Barker and Mohammad Abass dismissed Tom Lammonby and Eddie Byrom cheaply.Kyle Abbott then trapped James Hildreth lbw for 14 before Abell and Bartlett posted the first 50 partnership of the match following a short rain delay. The 54-run stand was broken by Abbott tempting Bartlett, who had played well for his 27, into playing at a rising delivery and Dawson snared a high catch at second slip.Abell and Lewis Goldsworthy held firm against some top-class bowling until the penultimate over of the day when Holland beat the defences of Goldsworthy with a full-length ball that clattered into the stumps.But Holland then went from hero to villain when he grassed a regulation catch off nightwatchman Jack Leach who had edged Barker to third slip.

The recalls of Moises Henriques alongside the fit-again Mitchell Starc were the key outcomes of Australia’s 15-man touring party announced for Sri Lanka

Daniel Brettig24-May-20162:58

Nannes: Not surprised with Henriques’ selection

Moises Henriques was a hotel room key away from being among the players suspended for “Homework-gate” on the 2013 India tour, but may now play a key role in Australia’s effort to build subcontinental momentum by beating Sri Lanka at home in July and August. Henriques and the fit-again fast bowler Mitchell Starc have been named in the 15-man Test squad for the Sri Lanka tour.

Australia squad for Sri Lanka Tests

Steve Smith (capt), David Warner, Jackson Bird, Joe Burns, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Peter Nevill, Stephen O’Keefe, Mitchell Starc, Adam Voges

The recalls of Henriques alongside Starc were the key outcomes of the touring party announced for Sri Lanka on Tuesday, with the selectors unable to consider Peter Siddle or James Pattinson due to injury. This and the continued struggles of Glenn Maxwell to find a place of batting maturity opened the way for Henriques’ recall, the first time he has been part of the Test squad since the South Africa tour in February and March 2014.The only Tests of Henriques’ stop-start career were in India the year before, where several staunch batting displays were offset by unpenetrative bowling and the wider issues then engulfing a divided and unsettled team.After the former coach Mickey Arthur’s ultimatum for individual player feedback following a heavy defeat in the first two Tests in Chennai and Hyderabad, Henriques was set to miss the deadline through forgetfulness. He was bailed out when a defective room key sent him down to reception, where a teammate reminded him of the task.Even so, Henriques still has much to prove in the Test arena, and may now get the chance in a series that will emphasise the speed of Starc but also a balance between pace and spin.”This squad has proven experience in subcontinental conditions,” the national selector Rod Marsh said. “Henriques comes into the squad to give the flexibility of an additional allrounder option, having already shown he plays and adapts well to spin-friendly conditions. He has been working hard with his fitness and we believe he is in prime condition to serve us well should he be selected to play.”Jackson Bird and Nathan Coulter-Nile join the squad and will give us good control and pace. Jackson had an impressive Sheffield Shield season and showed skill with reverse swing in the last Test match in New Zealand earlier this year. He’s playing in England at the moment and we’re confident this will build his skills to assist the squad if he is selected in Sri Lanka.”Stephen O’Keefe will complement Nathan Lyon and plays an important role in the subcontinent if he’s selected in the final XI. We know his ability, he takes wickets continually in first class cricket and he impresses when we select him to play Test cricket.”The first Test in the three-match series begins in Pallekele on July 26.

The introduction of concussion substitutes should be “very seriously” considered by the ICC, Australia’s team doctor Peter Brukner said after opening batsman Matt Renshaw was ruled out of the Sydney Test due to concussion

Brydon Coverdale at the SCG06-Jan-2017Australia’s team doctor Peter Brukner has said that the introduction of concussion substitutes should be “very seriously” considered by the ICC, after opening batsman Matt Renshaw was ruled out of the ongoing Sydney Test against Pakistan due to concussion.Renshaw was struck twice on the helmet, once while batting on the opening day, and then again while fielding at short leg on day three. He was cleared of concussion after the first blow. But he left the field with a headache following the second hit, and with the ill-effects still being felt the next morning, he was ruled out of the match by Brukner.Cricket Australia’s concussion protocols leave such a decision solely in the hands of medical staff, and Brukner said coach Darren Lehmann and captain Steven Smith had been fully supportive of the decision. However, it means that Australia will be one player short for the remainder of the Test, after the ICC last year rejected a CA proposal to allow concussion substitutes in first-class cricket.CA has this summer trialled the use of concussion substitutes in the Matador Cup and BBL. However, it is not permitted in the Sheffield Shield, as that would require the ICC to alter the playing conditions for first-class cricket, which it has so far declined to do.”The more examples we have of this, the more common it is, the more pressure there will be on the ICC to do something about a concussion sub,” Dr Brukner said on Friday. “The concern we have is there’s a tendency for the player and coaches and so on to want to continue, because they don’t want to let the team down.”It would be helpful in that regard if we had a sub, it would make it easier to pull players out with a concussion. But that’s for the ICC and the politicians to sort out … We introduced it in the non-first-class cricket in Australia and it seemed to be successful. I think it’s something that certainly needs to be looked at very seriously by the ICC.”In June last year, at a two-day meeting at Lord’s, the ICC’s Cricket Committee discussed the idea of concussion subs, but decided that it was not necessary to introduce the system in first-class cricket. “The committee considered a proposal from Cricket Australia for a ‘concussion substitute’ to be trialled for two years in domestic first-class cricket,” the ICC said in a statement at the time.”The committee acknowledged the seriousness of the issue of concussion in cricket, and stressed the need for consistent concussion policy to be implemented in all countries, but its view was that the current laws and playing conditions allow players to receive the best possible medical treatment, and further change to the regulations in this area is not required at present.”Renshaw does not have any playing commitments over the next few weeks as he is not part of a BBL squad, which should allow him plenty of recovery time before he returns to training. He is not expected to be in any doubt for Australia’s next Test series.Dr Brukner said Renshaw had passed concussion tests on both days one and three of the Sydney Test, but on the fourth morning “still had a headache, dizziness and felt a bit foggy”. He said it was impossible to know whether Renshaw’s susceptibility to concussion from the fielding blow had increased as a result of being struck on the helmet while batting on day one.”We’ll never know if he’d only had that one hit yesterday whether he would have had the same symptoms or not,” he said. “There is sometimes a suggestion in the research that cumulative blows may be a factor, but it’s very hard to say. He was certainly hit hard enough yesterday to have had a concussion just as a one-off.”

The team will be led by Prithvi Shaw and will open its campaign against Maharashtra on January 13

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Dec-2021Arjun Tendulkar, the son of former India batter Sachin Tendulkar, has been included in the Mumbai Ranji Trophy squad. The team will be led by Prithvi Shaw, whom chief selector Salil Ankola termed as a “brilliant captain and fantabulous opening batsman”.Shaw was India’s captain when they won the Under-19 World Cup in 2018. Last season, he had led Mumbai to the Vijay Hazare title. However, it will be the first time he will captain a side in first-class cricket.Arjun, the 22-year-old fast bowler, had broken into Mumbai’s squad for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy last year, and made his senior debut against Haryana, returning figures of 1 for 34 from three overs. He played one more game for Mumbai, turning out in their defeat against Puducherry. Arjun, batting at No. 11, was dismissed for 3 as Mumbai folded for 94; with the ball, he finished with 1 for 33 from four overs.Earlier this year, Arjun landed his first IPL contract with Mumbai Indians signing him for INR 20 lakhs at the auction. However, he did not play a single game during the season.Allrounder Shivam Dube, who has played one ODI and 13 T20Is, is also in the squad, as are Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Arman Jaffer and Aditya Tare. Dhawal Kulkarni will lead the pace attack.Mumbai, the 41-time Ranji Trophy champions, are placed in Elite Group C and will open their campaign against Maharashtra on January 13, before facing Delhi on January 20.Squad: Prithvi Shaw (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Aakarshit Gomel, Armaan Jaffer, Sarfaraz Khan, Sachin Yadav, Aditya Tare (wicketkeeper), Hardik Tamore (wicketkeeper), Shivam Dube, Aman Khan, Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Prashant Solanki, Shashank Attarde, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohit Avasthi, Prince Badiani, Siddharth Raut, Royston Dias, Arjun Tendulkar

The PCB and the various franchises have finally agreed on a window to resume the tournament

Umar Farooq11-Mar-2021The 2021 edition of the Pakistan Super League, which was suspended following a spate of Covid-19 cases among players and support staff, will resume once again in June. The PCB and the various franchises got together for a (virtual) meeting that is understood to have taken an hour long and in the end all parties were happy to restart the season in Karachi in two and a half months’ time.The Pakistan board is also working to restructure their coronavirus protocols, which have come under severe fire in the wake of the season stalling in very abrupt fashion last week. A two member independent committee consisting of infectious disease specialists has been established which will both help the PCB get to the bottom of how an outbreak broke out inside a bio-secure bubble and advise them on stricter safety measures so that it doesn’t happen again.Related

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The PCB and the six franchises met twice over the last four days to discuss a suitable window to complete the remaining 20 games. Initially, they zeroed on a slot spread over March and April but that was based on the board being able to convince Cricket South Africa to postpone their home series against Pakistan. It couldn’t. That tour will go ahead as planned later this month. So, the PCB settled on June as “the most preferred and practical” solution. The PSL will resume at some point between May 13 and June 26, after Pakistan tour to Zimbabwe and before their departure for England in the summer.Pakistan, largely, don’t play any cricket in June when summer is at its peak. There was one exception though, in 2008, when they hosted their first ever Asia Cup between June 25 and July 6. This time they’ve agreed to play the PSL in this window and keeping player welfare in mind they’ve picked Karachi as the venue instead of Lahore because the weather there is considered to be milder even during the summer months.With the threat of Covid-19 still around, it isn’t clear if PCB will once again use its own medical team to create the new bio-secure bubble. After lax management the first time, with several franchises reporting several breaches, it is quite likely that the board will outsource the job of setting up the bubble to a specialist firm.The PCB said that their management “will now look into the operational and logistical challenges and revert to the franchise owners and stakeholders”

Glenn McGrath insists Brett Lee’s bowling is still world class and he should be picked in Australia’s Test team as soon as he is fit

Cricinfo staff10-Nov-2009Glenn McGrath insists Brett Lee’s bowling is still world class and he should be picked in Australia’s Test team as soon as he is fit. While Lee has not played a Test since hobbling out of the Boxing Day match last year and is currently recovering from an elbow bone spur, he is also behind the young bowlers Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus in the pecking order.However, McGrath, who was launching Jane McGrath Day for January’s Sydney Test, said Lee remained a threat to international batsmen. “I think Brett’s still got a lot to offer, a lot of experience and what he brings to the team, that fear factor, there’s still that aura there he’s created,” McGrath said at the SCG.”In saying that, the guys that have done the job, the way Mitchell Johnson’s bowled, Pete Siddle has impressed me and Hilfy and Dougy Bollinger coming on the scene, you can’t fault any of them. It’s good, healthy competition [but] I would have ‘Binga’ in any team I played in if he’s back fit again.”Lee, 33, has taken 310 wickets in 76 Tests but there is a feeling the selectors doubt his ability to get through back-to-back five-day games. After recovering from ankle surgery, Lee did not play a Test during the Ashes series due to a side strain even though he felt he was ready for the final two games. The latest elbow setback, which resulted in an early departure from the India one-day series, came following some encouraging performances in the limited-overs sides.New South Wales face Tasmania in a Sheffield Shield match next week and Lee will have to play in that game to be a serious contender for the opening contest against West Indies from November 26. “In a Test the workload is going to be pretty heavy and I don’t think Brett would want to go into a Test where he was concerned [about his body],” McGrath, who took 563 wickets in 124 Tests, said. “If he broke down in that first match back it could damage his career a lot more than just sitting that one out and coming back when he was 100% right.”I heard he had a bowl at the nets yesterday and was pretty happy about how it went. If he can get through a four-day match then he can get through a Test match.”

To appreciate the full perfection of this day’s cricket, it may be useful, just for a moment please, to recall this ground in December: the grass is tussocky and barely green at all; the outfield is marked out for junior football games

Paul Edwards at Southport18-Jul-2016
ScorecardLuke Procter raises his bat to a century – and so much more•Getty Images

To appreciate the full perfection of this day’s cricket, it may be useful, just for a moment please, to recall this ground in December: the grass is tussocky and barely green at all; the outfield is marked out for junior football games; there are dishcloth skies and lowering dusks; and crows are perched in the bare balsam poplars like black commas, punctuating the winter.Now a Monday in July and summer is suddenly emerging from grey bedragglement. The sycamores at the Grosvenor Road End stand as if saluting its tardy arrival In the middle Haseeb Hameed and Luke Procter are building the 114-run partnership that will take Lancashire into the lead. From the direction of Harrod Drive, Ben Stokes is running in, determined to win the game for Durham and prove his fitness for the Manchester Test. But for all that Stokes and Borthwick may be in the selectors’ minds, this is not an international occasion. It is Lancashire and Durham badges which proliferate along with those of fine local clubs: Ormskirk, Fleetwood Hesketh, Sefton Park.Then Hameed, having taken 14 runs off a frolicsome four balls from Graham Onions and passed fifty for the sixth time in 15 innings this season, arches back but can only fend a fearsomely nasty short ball from Stokes to the substitute fielder, Jeremy Benton – almost a utility cricketer? – at third slip. Hameed, his sadness momentarily infinite, troops off without waiting for Rob Bailey’s finger. He receives a warm round of applause and the crowd settles again. Blue pastels and panamas are almost a uniform in the marquees. Petersen opens his account with a swept four off Borthwick, who is getting ever more joy from Grosvenor Road. There is a rattle of crockery as lunchtime approaches.Dreams may, indeed, take their time to arrive and be gone in a casual glance but that is no reason not to enjoy the reverie, be it a day at the cricket or the scent of a once-familiar perfume. Decembers come soon enough.But this day held its flawlessness through the afternoon session and on into the evening. A sip of Manzanilla before lunch Petersen was leg before to Borthwick when attempting to force the ball to leg and that dismissal heralded a Durham fightback on the resumption. Bowling from the Harrod Drive End, 19-year-old Adam Hickey, he of Benwell Hill CC, took his first Championship wickets when Steven Croft underclubbed a drive to Borthwick at mid-on and Karl Brown prodded him to Keaton Jennings at short-leg. Poor Brown is struggling badly at the moment and it is sad to see. .Those reverses left Lancashire with a lead of just 121 and only five wickets in hand but Tom Moores proved his mettle first by driving his ninth ball, bowled by Borthwick, for six and then by accompanying Procter to his second century of the season. Frankly Lancashire’s No3 needed all the nursemaiding that was on offer. Already he had nearly run himself out twice, once when simply dawdling and once, on 73, when his misunderstanding with Croft was unpunished thanks to Hickey’s fumble.Procter, though, is a true fighter and he has developed a method which suits him. True he crouches in his stance not so much like a fierce tiger about to pounce as an aged butler about to keel over. But like others with bizarre comportment at the wicket – Michael Yardy, Shivnarine Chanderpaul – his technique works for him and when he plays his cover-drives and pulls, the execution is as classical as Palairet could have wished. A scrambled single was called by the alert Moores and Procter sprinted to the bowler’s end before giving a little leap of joy and holding his bat aloft to all and to sundry. He had batted for four minutes less than five hours and he may have played an innings which sets up a victory.The crowd stood to Procter when he reached three figures and they stood again nine overs after tea when he returned to the pavilion having made 122 off 282 balls. They applauded as well when the details of his innings were announced over the public address system for this was a day when people seem determined to relish every good thing. One saw their point.Two overs after Procter was out Moores failed to make his ground when called for a single by Kyle Jarvis. It says something about the 19-year-old’s sangfroid during his second first-class innings that a run out seemed his most likely mode of dismissal. He had made 35 and had looked the part of a Division One cricketer. On the final day of this game, he will keep to Simon Kerrigan and Matt Parkinson on a turning pitch. Every day offers young Moores a new test, a new adventure and he looks as if he is enjoying every dashed minute of it.When Moores was out Lancashire’s lead was 196, competitive perhaps but nothing like the 250 for which Ashley Giles was looking. That was all but achieved thanks to a 27-run stand for the ninth wicket between Kerrigan and Nathan Buck and then thanks to Buck levying 16 runs off four balls from Borthwick, one of the sixes sailing over the Indoor School. Unlike the enjoyment derived by the crowd from this day, that ball is gone for over.Stokes ended the innings when Parkinson was caught at short leg but, as a bowler anyway, the all-rounder does not look quite at his fighting weight. Whether his batting is ready for the challenge of Mohammed Amir and Yasir Shah…well that, as Alan MacGilvray used to say, “is for tomorrow.”This evening spectators can smile ruefully at their sunburn and reflect on their day’s cricket. Tennis players are on their courts now but the light is still crystal-bright at a blessed Trafalgar Road. On the patio there is excited chatter and more clinking glasses as people discuss the several glories of the day. Someone is belting out “Flower of Scotland”, although God knows why. On second thoughts, there should be songs.

A round-up of the second day of Group A matches in the fourth round of the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Oct-2016

Group A

Deepak Hooda converted his third successive century into a mammoth 293 not out, his best score in first-class cricket, to flatten Punjab at Feroz Shah Kotla. The 21-year old Baroda captain’s maiden double-century included 25 fours and six sixes. He had resumed on 190 on the second day and batted through the rest of the innings to finish with a strike-rate of 82.76.Hooda could well have had his first triple-century – and the fourth of this season, there have only been four rounds – but Munaf Patel, having hung in for 57 minutes and 29 balls, contributing one run to the final-wicket stand of 31, fell on the last ball of the 140th over from Shubek Gill. Hooda’s 293 was the second-highest score in Baroda’s history.Baroda were dismissed for 529, with Sandeep Sharma taking 4 for 101. Punjab had 35 overs to last until stumps. They lost Jiwanjot Singh in the 10th over, but the other opener Manan Vohra ensured there were no further losses with an unbeaten 67.A first-innings lead of 100 became extremely handy for Bengal as 15 wickets fell on the second day in Dharamsala. Railways, who resumed their first innings on 37 for 4, were bowled out for 105 as seamer Ashok Dinda picked up 5 for 45 bowling 14 out of the 27.3 overs in the innings. It was his 19th five-for and second in as many matches. Seven of the Railways batsmen suffered single-digit scores and had it not been for their captain Karn Sharma’s 40 off 26 balls, they may not even have got a total above hundred.Bengal’s batsmen were a lot more sturdy with Wriddhiman Saha and captain Manoj Tiwary making 44 and 48 respectively to help build the lead to a considerable 308 by stumps. They only have one wicket standing though thanks to the Railways seamers Deepak Bansal and Karan Thakur, who picked up 3 for 40 and 3 for 39.N Jagadeesan became the first player from Tamil Nadu to score a century on debut in eight years as his team continued their run-scoring spree in Cuttack. He was unbeaten on 118 having faced 196 balls, with eight fours and two sixes. Madhya Pradesh had been flogged for 547 runs over the course of 174 overs with only seven wickets as compensation. This after they had dismissed both Tamil Nadu openers for ducks on the first day.The revival was led by Kaushik Gandhi, who having been on 71 overnight, completed his maiden first-class century. He finished with 157 off 368 balls with 24 fours. B Indrajith was one of only three wickets MP were able to take on the second day, but not before he had scored his third fifty-plus score in three innings.Proceedings were rather slow in the other match in Delhi, where Uttar Pradesh ground out 147 runs at a run-rate of 2.19 against Gujarat. One of the overnight batsmen Mohammad Saif scored 4 off 51 balls. The bulk of their runs came from the openers – Tanmay Srivastava made 45 off 148 balls while his partner Samarth Singh got to 50 off 101 balls to go with his 187 in his last innings. UP still trail by 200 runs. Gujarat’s batsmen deserve credit for that, not least their resilient 10th wicket pair. Chirag Gandhi (87) and Ishwar Chaudhary (13) got together when the score was 284 for 9 to took it to 347. UP fast bowler Imtiaz Ahmed picked up 5 for 73.