Mumbai and former Chennai Super Kings pacer Tushar Deshpande took a hat-trick and a five-wicket haul as Chandigarh were bundled out for 78 on Day Two of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group D match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday. Deshpande tore through the top order to pick 5-17, and Mohit Avasthi backed him with figures of 3-9. Mumbai, who had made 429 on the back of half-centuries from Tanush Kotian and Avasthi, enforced the follow-on, and Deshpande struck again in the second innings to leave Chandigarh at 0/1.
Captain Jaydev Unadkat, Chetan Sakariya and Chirag Jani took a wicket each. Veteran left-arm spin bowling all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, resuming on 72, scored 102 off 209 balls with seven fours as Saurashtra, who began the day on 308/4, were bowled out for 392 in 110.4 overs against Chhattisgarh in an Elite Group B clash at Rajkot. Chhattisgarh were 122/3 in 55 overs at stumps. Anuj Tiwary was unbeaten on 72 and Mayank Verma on 32, with Ayush Pandey out for 13. Elsewhere, in the Elite Group A clash in Nagpur, Vidarbha captain Akshay Wadkar was dismissed two short of a maiden first-class double hundred, and his side finished on 428 against Puducherry after Yash Rathod hit 134 earlier in the day, with the visitors reaching 102/1 at stumps. Jharkhand were bowled out for 587 against Kerala in Jamshedpur, with Aditya Singh’s 147 and captain Virat Singh’s 108 being strong contributions. Assam captain Denish Das (103) and Sibsankar Roy (143) also hit tons against Punjab in New Chandigarh, and Assam were bowled out for 373. Uttarakhand need 18 runs to match Railways’ score of 78, with Avneesh Sudha unbeaten on 75. Tripura offspinner Sandip Sarkar took eight wickets in a 41.2-over spell, but Hyderabad still lead by 160 runs and need three wickets to move closer to an innings win.
