Ranji Trophy: Mukund puts Tamil Nadu in strong position

Centuries by Abhinav Mukund and Subramaniam Badrinath have put Tamil Nadu in the driver’s seat against hosts Gujarat on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Division Tuesday.

Mukund, who missed out on a berth in the Indian Test squad for Australia, has once again proved why he is one of the frontrunners for the coveted slot after ending the day unbeaten on 150.

Mukund and Badrinath (102) steered Tamil Nadu to 288/2 at stumps. They shared a stand of 223 runs after opener Murali Vijay was out early.

At Kolkata, Delhi are in a spot of bother after losing 8 wickets on the first day with the score on 252. Ashok Dinda starred with the ball taking four wickets. A gritty 79 by Shikhar Dhawan was the saving grace for Delhi. Bengal, who are languishing at the bottom of the points table in Group B, are desperate for a win while Delhi too are battling hard to book their place in the knockouts.

Defending champions Rajasthan, playing at home, are in a strong position against Saurashtra. The hosts were 369/7 after the first day’s play courtesy centuries from Vineet Saxena (127) and Puneet Yadav (108), however, a four-wicket haul by Siddharth Trivedi provided some respite for the visitors.

Group A leaders Karnataka could manage to take only four Punjab wickets with the score on 278 when stumps were called. Sarul Kanwar (89) and Karan Goel (71) impressed on the first day at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. In a lacklustre bowling effort by the home team, Neravanda Aiyappa was the only bowler who troubled the batsmen.

Brief scores:Elite Division

Group A:

At Delhi: Railways 204/5 in 90 overs (Shivakant Shukla 96, Sanjay Bangar 46; Biplab Samantray 2-32) vs. Orissa

At Lucknow: Mumbai 203/3 in 62.1 overs (Sushant Marathe 102, Kaustubh Pawar 76; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2-64)vs. Uttar Pradesh

At Bangalore: Punjab 278/4 in 91 overs (Sarul Kanwar 89, Karan Goel 71; Neravanda Aiyappa 2-30) vs. Karnataka

At Jaipur: Rajasthan 369/7 in 89 overs (Vineet Saxena 127, Puneet Yadav 108; Siddharth Trivedi 4-69, Jaydev Unadkat 2-60) vs. Saurashtra

Group B:

At Kolkata: Delhi 252/8 in 80.3 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 76, Rajat Bhatia batting 59; Ashok Dinda 4-64, Iresh Saxena 2-37) vs. Bengal

At Ahmedabad: Tamil Nadu 288/2 in 90 overs (Abhinav Mukund batting 150, Subramaniam Badrinath 102; Ishwar Chaudhary 2-61) vs. Gujarat

At Rohtak: Madhya Pradesh 278/3 in 90 overs (Naman Ojha 160, Zafar Ali 38; Harshal Patel 2-41) vs. Haryana.