Ranji Roundup: Sarfaraz continues glorious form, scores 169
Mumbai's Sarfaraz Khan continued his scintillating form this season by scoring 169 at the Wankhede on the first day of their Ranji Trophy group stage match against Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday. Mumbai were 352/4 at stumps largely thanks to a 275-run stand between Sarfaraz and Aakarshit Gomel.
Mumbai were down to 72 for 3 at one point but Sarfaraz and Gomel's stand took them out of the doldrums and ended up giving them the advantage at the end of the opening day. Gomel was dismissed on 122 while Sarfaraz remained unbeaten and looks on course to scoring his third double ton in five matches. His last few scores read 301*, 226*, 78 and 25.
Karnataka dismissed Baroda for just 85 runs with Abhimanyu Mithun and Krishnappa Gowtham taking three wickets each. They ended the day with a lead of 80 runs with three wickets in hand.
Punjab's Vinay Choudhary took six as they dismissed Bengal for 138 in Patiala. They ended Day 1 trailing by 45 runs. Jaydev Unadkat picked up three wickets as Saurashtra reduced Tamil Nadu to 250/7 despite Abhinav Mukund making 86.
Uttar Pradesh rode on Aquib Khan's five-wicket haul as they bowled out Himachal Pradesh for 220 in Lucknow. UP ended the day on 23/1. Maharashtra were all out for 207 and Uttarakhand in reply ended the first day on 112/3.
Haryana dismissed Jammu and Kashmir for 340. Hyderabad were 239/7 against Vidarbha while Services were 81/3 after dismissing Chandigarh for 179. Gujarat bowled out Andhra Pradesh for 177 and scored two runs at the end of the day. Odisha ended their opening day on 205/4 against Jharkhand.
Among the Plate Group matches, Meghalaya were 387/4 against Arunachal Pradesh while Chhattisgarh were 352/5 against Manipur. Goa declared on 490/4 with Smit Patel smashing 236 off just 195 balls. It was part of a whirlwind 301-run stand with captain Amit Verma who scored 148 off 123 balls. Bihar were 286/8 against Sikkim.
