Leading the line for Railways was leg-spinner Karn Sharma, who bagged eight wickets as they reduced Vidarbha to just 213 runs, after captain Faiz Fazal hit a century on Day 1 of their Ranji Trophy Group D match on Tuesday, December 13. Fazal's 112 off 219 balls was the best for Vidarbha as his teammate lost their wickets around him. He also fell to Sharma as the experienced campaigner bagged eight wickets.
Fazal hit 12 fours during his innings but only Atharva Taide and Sanjay Raghunath managed to reach double-digit figures among the other Vidarbha batters as the 35-year-old former India bowler ran through the opposition batting line-up.
In reply, the Railways were 22 for 1 in 6.1 overs at stumps.
Meanwhile, in another Group D match played in Mohali, opener Prabhsimran Singh smashed a double hundred as the Punjab batters took the Chandigarh bowlers to the cleaners post 363 for 3 on Day 1. Prabhsimran was well helped by Abhishek Sharma, who also hit a century as the duo put on 250 runs for the opening wicket in 57.4 overs to bring down the Chandigarh bowlers.
Chandigarh went on to break their opening stand towards the end of the second session with Gurinder Singh getting the wicket of Abhishek, who hit exactly 100 off 146 balls with the help of 11 fours and two sixes. Prabhsimran was the last man out on the day, caught by Sandeep Sharma off Rohit Dhanda (2/50), who also got rid of Naman Dhir (34). Prabh hit 28 fours and two sixes during his 278-ball innings which lasted almost the whole day.
The other games saw Delhi bowled out by Maharashtra for 191, before the Ishant Sharma-led pace attack left the Maharashtrians reeling at 80 for 5 in their Group B match.
The Group A match between Himachal Pradesh and Haryana saw the seamers of the former dismiss the opponent batters for just 46 runs. Vaibhav Arora (4/15), Sidharth Sharma (3/12) and rookie Kanwar Abhinay (2/1) shared the bulk of the spoils.
(With PTI Inputs)
