Bengal and Karnataka have beaten their respective opponents in form of Jharkhand and Uttarakhand to become the first two teams to reach the semi final of Ranji Trophy 2022/23.
Bengal defeated Jharkhand by the margin of 9 runs to register a berth in the semis. While Karnataka won by an inning and 281 runs against Uttarakhand.
Bengal beat Jharkhand by 9 wickets
Summary:
Jharkhand 173/10 (Akash deep 4-46) & 221/10 (Sen 64, Chakraborty 41*, Ghatak 3-21, Shahbaz 2-45, )
Bengal: 328/10 (Eswaran 77, Shahbaz, 82) & 69/1
Winning the toss in the quarter final, Bengal had their work cut out when they bundled Jharkhand out for 173 in the first inning. Akash Deep was the pick of the bowler for them who claimed 4 wickets.
Kumar Suraj of Jharkhand showed some defiance along with the tail enders to take his team past the score of 150 after getting no support from the top order batters. He remained not out for the score of 89 runs from 175 balls.
Eswaran, Shahbaz boost Bengal’s total
Bengal in return posted a massive total of 328 on the board. They too had a shaky start after losing the Kazi Saif early in the inning. But Eswaran played a handy knock of 77 to partner up with Gharami who scored 68. Together they added 136 runs for the second wicket.
In the lower order Shahbaz Ahmed smashed 82 off 100 to take his side to a comfortable total and first inning lead of 155 runs.
Jharkhand go through to semifinal
Jharkhand came out guns blazing in second inning with Aryaman Sen scoring 64 at the top of the order. But it was no avail, as he couldn’t find support yet again. Anukul Roy and Chakraborty in lower order scored 40 and 41 to somehow drag the total over 200 run mark.
Jharkhand was bowled out for a total of 221 runs. Which meant that Bengal required just 67 runs to reach the semifinal.
They will face the winning team from the game being played between MP and AP.
Eswaran and Gharami once again paired up for Bengal after the fall of first wicket. They raced to the total in just 12.4 overs to and
Karnataka beat Uttarakhand by an inning and 281 runs
Summary:
Uttrakhand 116/10 (Kunal Chandela 31, M Venkatesh 5/36) & 209/10 (Swapnil Singh 51, Shreyas Gopal 3/26)
Karnataka: 606/10 (Gopal161, Agarwal 83, Samarth R 82, Abhay Negi 4/109)
Karnataka on the other hand had a rather easy victory against Uttarakhand. Having won the toss, Karnataka invited the newly promoted and meek looking Uttarakhand team to bat first. They were bundled for a score of 116 on the very first day.
M Venkatesh for Karnataka claimed a fifer while Gowtham and Kaverappa picked two wickets each to support their strike bowler.
Strong batting by Karnataka in first inning
Karnataka were a giant to conquer with the bat in hands. Captain Mayank Agarwal set the tone for the inning with an amazing 83 run knock alongside Samarth who also scored 82. Together they added 159 runs for the first wicket.
In the middle order Shreyas Gopal scored an unbeaten knock of 161* that helped his side post a massive first inning total of 606 runs. And take a massive lead of 490 runs over Uttarakhand wo faltered in their second inning as well.
They could only manage to score a total of 209 in the second time of asking. Eventually losing the game by a margin of 281 runs.
Karnataka will face the winner of the match being played between Saurashtra and Punjab.
