Ranji round two: Pujara shines in Saurashtra's tough start, Sarwate helps Vidarbha top Group A

Saurashtra, the defending champions, have had a tough start to the 2023-24 Ranji season. After being denied an outright win in their opening game by Jharkhand, they slumped to a four-wicket defeat to Haryana in the second round of matches after being spun out on home turf by Jayant Yadav and Nishant Sindhu.

Jayant picked up a five-for in the first innings to bowl Saurashtra out for 145 on the opening day. Only Cheteshwar Pujara, who struck his 17th first-class double ton last week, offered resistance by top scoring with 49. Haryana were on course for a bigger lead than the 55 they managed, especially at 132 for 1, with Ankit Kumar and Himanshu Rana hitting half-centuries.

From there, Haryana lost 9 for 68, with Yuvrajsinh Dodiya, the offspinner, along with the left-arm spinners, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and Parth Bhut, picking up all the wickets among them.

Saurashtra's second innings was once again punctuated with solidity from Pujara and Arpit Vasavada, who made 43 and 45 respectively, but there was very little of note from the others until Bhut and Jaydev Unadkat, the captain, hauled them from a precarious 150 for 8 to 220 all out.

Set 166 for victory, Haryana were in a hint of trouble at 78 for 3 before being guided over the line courtesy a half-century from Ashok Menaria, the captain. He was unbeaten on 58, while Sindhu contributed a handy 24 to round off an impactful game with both bat and ball. The win gives Haryana massive legroom in Elite Group A, after they started the season with a weather-affected game against Rajasthan in Lahli, where even the first innings couldn't be completed.

Vidarbha currently top Group A, having put together two big wins; their latest in round two being fairly one-sided with Manipur lasting all of 66.3 overs combined in both innings. Aditya Sarwate, the left-arm spinner, picked up a match haul of 9 for 16.

Having bowled Manipur out for 75 shortly after lunch on the opening day, Vidarbha secured a 155-run lead thanks to Sarwate's 69, the highest score of the innings. That would prove to be more than enough as Vidarbha won by an innings and 90 runs to secure a bonus-point win.

Puducherry began with a stunning win over Delhi last week, but twin batting failures cost them big as they slumped to a 98-run loss to Baroda on a red-soil deck at the Moti Bagh Stadium in Vadodara.

Playing in only his sixth first-class match, Mahesh Pithiya, the offspinner, picked up a match haul of seven wickets. Pithiya had made headlines last year when he was picked by Australia as a net bowler for the Border-Gavaskar series to try and simulate scenarios against R Ashwin. As it turned out, Pithiya was the sidekick to the main hero, Bhargav Bhatt. The left-arm-spinner ended with eleven wickets in the match as Puducherry folded for 119 while chasing 218.

It wasn't all doom and gloom for Puducherry, though. If Gaurav Yadav, the fast bowler, hit the high notes in their opening win with a ten-for, offspinner Sagar Udeshi was at the forefront of their bowling performance this time, taking 13 for 152.

Rohit Rayudu, cousin of Ambati Rayudu, struck his third first-class century as Hyderabad beat Meghalaya with a bonus point to top the Plate group after two rounds. Last week, they'd begun the new season with an innings win over Nagaland.

Like they'd done in that win, Hyderabad pressed the accelerator and accumulated 346 for 7 in 80 overs before declaring. The 235-run lead was more than comfortable to secure victory; Meghalaya did a tad better in the second innings to make 154 in 36.1 overs as opposed to the 111 they made in 33.1 overs in the first innings.

In another plate game, Ankur Malik's century and five-for helped Sikkim secure an innings and 288-run win over Arunachal Pradesh.