Iyer, Tare take Mumbai higher

Cuttack, February 13

Shreyas Iyer struck a sublime 90 to take Mumbai to 327/7 on Day One of their semifinal against Madhya Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy.

Iyer combined with opener Bhavin Thakkar (30) to share an 88-run stand before Aditya Tare (68) and Abhishek Nayar (43) played handy knocks to give their team a solid start. At stumps, Siddhesh Lad was batting on 57 in the company of Shardul Thakur.

The star bowler for Madhya Pradesh turned out to be pacer Chandrakant Sakure, who made his first class debut in the quarterfinal against Bengal. Besides removing the top-three Mumbai batsmen Sakure got rid of Iqbal Abdulla later in the day to end with the figures of four for 102 in 25 overs. Experienced fast bowler Ishwar Pandey picked up two wickets at an economy rate of 1.78.

While Mumbai are 40-time winners of the prestigious domestic competition, Madhya Pradesh have entered the final for the second time. 

Put in to bat, Iyer’s 104-ball effort came after Mumbai lost Akhil Herwadkar early. He scored runs at a brisk pace and ended with 13 fours and a six.

Verma leads Assam’s fightback vs Saurashtra

Vadodara: Middle-order batsman Amit Verma held together the innings with an unbeaten 74 runs to guide Assam to 193/7 against Saurashtra on the opening day of the second semifinal.

Put in to bat, Assam lost the first three batsmen for just 25 runs before Verma and KB Arun Karthik (59) stabilised the innings with a 127-run stand for the fourth wicket.

Verma faced as many 210 balls during his unbeaten knock and hit 11 boundaries, while Karthik’s fifty came off 144 deliveries with the help of six fours and one hit over the fence. At stumps, Dhiraj Goswami (7 not out) was giving Verma the company. 

For Saurashtra, the duo of Rathod (3/37) and Jaydev Unadkat (3/60) shared six wickets between them. — PTI