Ruturaj Gaikwad’s sublime form continued as he scored a century in Maharashtra’s round 2 game against Chandigarh on Saturday. In another game, former Mumbai captain Ajinkya Rahane showed that he’s still got it as he too breached the triple-figure mark for the 60th time in his first-class career. Teams like UP, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Mumbai, Delhi finished Day 1 by establishing themselves firmly in the driver’s seat.
Gaikwad, Rahane headline Day 1 of Ranji Trophy 2025/26 round 2
Arshin Kulkarni’s 50-run knock helped Maharashtra recover after Prithvi Shaw was dismissed cheaply for 8 runs. The highlight of the innings was Gaikwad’s 116-run-knock that was laced with 15 fours. At the end of their 1st innings, MHA finished at 313 runs.
Likewise, Rahane led the fightback for Mumbai with a scintillating century after losing openers Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Musheer Khan cheaply. The ex-Mumbai captain retired hurt after scoring 118 runs off 237 deliveries. Eventually, Mumbai managed to reach 251/5 at stumps on Day 1. Notably, Sarfaraz Khan – who was recently snubbed from the India A squad for the series against South Africa – managed to score just one run.
In Delhi vs HP, Arpit Rana (64), Yash Dhull (61) and Ayush Doseja (51) helped the team reach 306/4 at the end of play. Bengal captain Abhimanyu Easwaran failed to fire in the game against Gujarat as he was dismissed for just 20 runs. Fifties from Sudip Kumar Gharami, Abhishek Porel and Sumanta Gupta helped Bengal reach 244/7 at stumps. Desai was the pick of the bowlers for GUJ with 3 wickets to his name while Test regular Ravindra Jadeja did not bowl in the contest.
More to follow…
