Saxena limits Saurashtra to 209
A round-up of the fifth round of Ranji Trophy's Group A matches on December 8, 2012
ESPNcricinfo staff
08-Dec-2012
In the previous match at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot, Ravindra Jadeja alone had scored 331 but though he top scored again, run-making wasn't as easy and Saurashtra were bowled out for 209. Much of the damage was done by left-arm spinner Iresh Saxena, whose five-for helped Bengal take the final six wickets for 35 runs. The slide was hastened by the dismissal of Jadeja, who made 70 to take his season's tally past 700, and there were three ducks in the lower order. Saxena finished with impressive figures of 12.3-5-17-5. Saurashtra had looked set for a larger total after the openers played out more than two hours to put on 64, but they lost wickets in bunches to finish on a small score.
Two of Rajasthan's talented young batsmen, Robin Bist and Ashok Menaria, continued to struggle to find form, falling cheaply on a day when Gujarat kept the run-rate firmly in check. Bist has only one half-century in 10 innings since his sparkling performance at the Duleep Trophy, while Menaria hasn't hit a fifty in nine Ranji innings. Forties from debutant opener Saurabh Chouhan and the vastly experienced Hrishikesh Kanitkar lifted Rajasthan, and Rashmi Parida also chipped in with 36.The most successful of the Gujarat bowlers was left-arm-spinner Rakesh Dhurv, who ended with figures of 36-19-47-3.
Madhya Pradesh made patient progress against Railways in Bhubaneshwar, with Rameez Khan's 82 guiding them to 212 for 5. None of MP's top four was in any rush after Railways chose to field, with all of them striking at less than 40. Each of the top-order batsmen got set, but only Rameez went on to reach a half-century. Opener Zafar Ali batted for almost an hour and a half before being caught-behind, and his partner Naman Ojha followed suit half an hour later. Rameez anchored the innings, and the arrival of Udit Birla and Jalaj Saxena provided some urgency towards the end of the day.