Batting performances
Jitesh Sharma’s brazen half-century – 18-ball unbeaten 51 – was ably supported by Shubham Dubey’s 47* in 24 as Vidarbha chased down Uttarakhand’s strong 141/3 in just 11.2 overs. Down to 56/3 at the end of the powerplay, the two batters got together for a berserk unbroken partnership of 89 runs where Jitesh hit five sixes and Dubey added four more in a game reduced to 13 overs per side due to rain in Chandigarh.
Sourav Chauhan hit a 61 in just 18 balls, leading Gujarat’s modest chase against Arunachal Pradesh in Ranchi. Chauhan hit five fours and half a dozen sixes in his stunning assault as Gujarat overhauled Arunachal’s 126/8 in just 7.4 overs.
Skipper Manan Vohra’s 81 and an equally stunning 79 not out by his opening partner Arjun Azad helped Chandigarh thump Bihar by nine wickets, chasing down their 171/6 in just 17 overs. Vohra hit nine fours and two sixes at the BKC in Mumbai While Azad struck nine fours too and four sixes to go with it in his 43-ball knock. Bihar’s strong total, meanwhile, was powered by their keeper-opener Bipin Saurabh’s 46-ball 76 that set the base.
Krunal Pandya’s captain’s knock and a 111-run stand with Shivalik Sharma helped Baroda recover from a precarious 26/3 after five overs to post a competitive 145/5 in Jaipur. Pandya hit a half-century, finishing with 56 while his partner made 46 in 37 balls.
Shashank Chandrakar’s brisk 73 helped Chhattisgarh post 150/8 against Mizoram in Jaipur. Despite losing a couple of partners inside the powerplay, Chandrakar posted a 89-run stand with Shashank Singh, hitting three sixes and five fours en route his match-winning knock.
Pratham Singh rained fours at the JSCA Stadium in Ranchi, helping Railways overhaul Manipur’s humble 112/5 in just over 10 overs for a comprehensive nine-wicket win to begin their season. The Railways opener hit the fence 11 times, and went over it twice, in his unbeaten 37-ball 67.
Goa captain Darshan Misal’s berserk 27-ball knock worth 61 – inclusive of five sixes and as many fours – helped Goa hit the cruise mode early in their season opener against Andhra Pradesh. Tunish Sawkar (34* off 11) and Krishnamurthy Siddharth (32* off 12) helped provide the finishing touches at the fag end, helping Goa post a match-winning 232/6 form their allotted overs.
Subhranshu Senapati’s aggressive century – 119 off just 54 deliveries – was well complimented by opener Sandeep PAtnaik’s 57-ball 87 as Odisha posted and then successfully defended 226/2 against Assam. The centurion slammed eight sixes and another 10 boudnaries in his unbeaten knock, putting on a 199-run second-wicket stand with Patnaik, who was equally brutal on the Assam attack at DY Patil in Navi Mumbai. Assam’s spirited chase included three knocks of 40s but weren’t enough to put them over the line.
Ruturaj Gaikwad’s match-winning 82 off just 40 balls helped Maharashtra get their season off to a flying start, overhauling Bengal’s 158 with more than three overs to spare. The Maharashtra opener took the attack to the opposition from the word go, hitting nine fours and five sixes, as he posted a 56-run stand with Arshin Kulkarni and another worth 63 with his captain Kedar Jadhav, who stayed unbeaten on 40 off 26 himself.
Skipper Ajinkya Rahane played a match-winning hand of 76 not out, guiding Mumbai to a comfortable 8-wicket win in their rain-curtailed season opener against Haryana. Rahane hit half a dozen boundaries and three sixes in his 43-ball knock, forging using half-century stands with Angkrish Rasghuvanshi and Shivam Dube, who contiobuted 26 each.
In yet another high-scoring game in Ranchi, Tarang Goel (51 off 27), Vishvaraj Jadeja (50* off 29), Jay Gohil (42* off 23) and Sheldon Jackson (41 off 29) were the protagonists as Saurashtra posted a mammoth 211/4 from their 20 overs, having overcome a jittery start that had left them reeling at 24/2 in the third over after Siddarth Kaul’s twin strikes. In reply, Punjab were bowled out for 174 in the final over as they were left behind in the run chase right from the time their top order departed for single-digit scores.
Bowling performances
KC Cariappa’s brilliant 4-0-10-3, ably supported by Mohit Jangra’s 3-23, was in vain as Mizoram could only muster 105/8 in the chase despite keeping Chhattisgarh to 150.
Amit Passi (4-26) and Lukman Meriwala (3-25) shared seven wickets between them to derail Jammu and Kashmir’s spirited chase of 146 late in the day. J&K were cruising at 84/2 at the start of the 14th over but a late collapse saw them restricted to just 126/9.
Akash Pandey’s mighty impressive spell of 4-0-6-4 wreaked havoc for Manipur, who were kept to a below-par 112/5 from their 20 overs against Railways. Akash took three in quick succession to reduce the underdogs to 33/4 in the eighth over before returning to break the half-century stand in the 16th for his fourth scalp.
Arjun Tendulkar (3-46) and Lakshay Garg (3-40) were expensive but picked up six wickets between them in Goa’s successful defence of an above-par 232 against Andhra Pradesh in Ranchi. The pair struck at regular intervals to wrap up AP’s middle and lower-order cheaply, never allowing them to regain momentum after a solid base set by the top-three, that included Hanuma Vihari’s 33-ball 58.
Shreyas Gopal (4-17) and Vinod Kumar (4-22) ran through the Himachal Pradesh batting to script a comfortable 35-run victory for Kerala. While Vinod lent a couple of early blows, Gopal struck in the middle overs to keep the opposition in check. The duo then returned at death to trigger another collapse, keeping HP to 128, in reply to Kerala’s 163/8.
