Ranji Trophy: Chandigarh to take on Railways today

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Chandigarh, January 16

After a poor weather and wet outfield marred last match, the hosts Chandigarh will face Railways in their second home tie of the Ranji Trophy season at Sector 16 Cricket Stadium from January 17. With two wins, two defeats and one draw, Railways are placed at third in the table with 14 points.

The tie against Chandigarh will be a do-or-die situation for the visitors to qualify further in the knock-out stage of the tournament. On Monday, the visitors attended a pre-match practice session with three specialist coaches, Nikhil Doru (batting), Santosh Saxena (bowling) and Dharmendra Rana (fielding) at the match venue. “The team will be aiming at winning the remaining the two matches with a big margin. It’s important for us to clinch the Ranji title for the third time,” said Dharmendra Rana, team manager and coach.

Railways will be seeking a fine performance from the their vice-captain Karn Sharma, who has played for Indian in T20, ODI and Test matches and proved his worth in the IPL. Captain Upendra Yadav and Pratham Singh, who have a vast IPL and domestic experience, will be playing an important role. Mohammad Saif (233), who has scored an unbeaten double century in the tournament, is another hidden gem for the side.

Placed at the bottom, but confident

Chandigarh, who are at the bottom of the points’ table, are still hunting for their first win. The innings of Manan Vohra (200) and centurion Kunal Mahajan against hosts Tripura in Agartala proved futile due to bad light. In last match against Vidarbha, fog and bad light hampered the team’s spirit. Despite unfavourable conditions, Vidarbha scored 307 runs in their first innings, which turned out to be a serious concern for the home bowlers.

Railways: Upendra Yadav (captain), Mohammad Saif, Pratham Singh, Shivam Chowdhary, Aridam Ghosh, Rahul Rawat, Karan Sharma, Mohit Raut, Yuvraj Singh, Akash Pandey, Amit Kuila, Vivek Singh, M Deodhar, Himanshu Sangwan, Sagar Jadhav and Akshit Pandey.

Chandigarh: Manan Vohra (captain), Arjit Singh, Mohd Arsalan Khan, Bhagmender Lather, Gaurav Puri, Kunal Mahajan, Akshit Rana, Ankit Kaushik, Gurinder Singh, Abhijeet Garg, Gaurav Gambhir, Hartejaswi Kapoor, Sandeep Sharma, Rohit Dandha and Jagjit Singh Sandhu.