Gill Fails Again as Saurashtra Hammer Punjab by 194 Runs

Rajkot: Star batsman Shubman Gill endured his second unproductive outing as Punjab faltered against the Saurashtra spinners and were bowled out for 194 on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match here on Friday. Gill, Punjab’s best hope of a win as they chased a daunting 320 on a difficult pitch, collapsed to 14 off 32 balls as the visitors reached 125 in their second innings.

In the first innings, Gill was dismissed for a two-ball duck.

In both the innings, Gill was stranded in front of the wicket by left-arm spinner Parth Bhut, who completed his 10-wicket match haul.

Bhut, who took 5 for 33 in the first innings, produced an even better spell a day later, taking 5 for 8 in 10 overs.

The spinners’ dominance meant 23 wickets fell on Day 1, while Day 2 saw 17 batsmen return to the bench.

Bhut received superb support from fellow spinner Dharmendra Jadeja, who took five wickets while giving up 55 runs.

There was no real resistance from the Punjab batsmen as Uday Saharan top-scored with 31 off 71 balls.

Earlier, Saurashtra managed to post a better second innings by posting 286 after being 24 for three on the night.

Leading by just 108 runs from 75 for five, the struggle of the batsmen in the last order strengthened the home team.

Prerak Mankad led the way with 56 off 41-balls. India’s all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja made a 44-ball 46, while Bhut had an unbeaten 37 and Hetvik Kotak also contributed 39.

While Saurashtra has 18 points from six matches, Punjab remains on 11 points after six matches.

MP restart command

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After scoring 323 in the first innings, Madhya Pradesh reduced Karnataka to 168 for eight on day 2 at Alur.

Karnataka are still trailing by 155 runs. Spinner Saransh Jain did the maximum damage by taking three wickets for 42 runs.

Karnataka opener KV Aneesh remained unbeaten on 80 off 153 balls.

Quick Points:

At Rajkot: Saurashtra 172 and 286 all in 58.5 overs (Prerak Mankad 56, Ravindra Jadeja 46, Parth Bhut 37 not out; Harpreet Brar 5/104, Jass Inder 3/84) beat Punjab: 139 and 125 all in 39 overs (Uday Saharan 31; Parth Bhut) 5/8, Dharmendra Jadeja 5/55) by 194 runs.

At Alur: Madhya Pradesh: 323, 116.1 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 87, Rajat Patidar 30, Himanshu Mantri 39, Shubham Sharma 33; Shreyas Gopal 2/56, Vysakh Vijayakumar 2/71, Vidyadhar Patil 3/56) Against Karnataka: 168/8 in 56 overs (KV Aneesh 80 innings, Shreyas Gopal 41; Saransh Jain 3/42, Aryan Pandey 2/25).

At Pune: Goa: 209, vs Maharashtra: 306/8 in 91 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 66, Saurabh Nawale 95 not out; Lalit Yadav 3/95, Arjun Tendulkar 2/42).

At Mangalapuram: Kerala: 139 and 21/2 in 5.5 overs, vs Chandigarh: All out 416 in 115.4 overs (Arjun Azad 102, Manan Vohra 113, Arjit Singh 52, Shivam Bhambri 41; Edhen Apple Tom 4/61).