Srinagar, Jan 4: The splendid unbeaten marathon knock of 233 by Mohammad Saif has put Railways in the driver’s seat as they bundled out J&K for 161 run total in the first innings to earn innings lead of 266 runs on the second day of the Ranji Trophy tournament match at Lalbhai Contractor Stadium, Surat on Wednesday.
While none of the other batters during the first two days of play could score fifty, Mohammad Saif scored a brilliant unbeaten knock of 233 runs to guide Railway’s inning to a total of 427 runs. In response, J&K bundled out for 161 run total in the first innings to hand railways first innings lead of 266. J&K were forced to follow on and were 5/0 in the second innings at the end of the second day’s play. J&K still trail by 261 runs.
Earlier Railways resumed their inning from an overnight total of 322 runs for the loss of eight wickets. Saif resumed an overnight individual score of 161. He continued to anchor Railways innings and went on to take his team to 427 run total. Saif formed a 97-run stand for the 10th wicket with Adarsh Singh who was the last wicket to fall in the innings after scoring 21. Saif remained not out on a magnificent 233 from 293 balls. He hit 30 fours and three sixes. The next best score in Railways innings was 32 by Vivek Singh. For J&K, AbidMushtaq took four wickets while Umar took three. AuqibNabi took two wickets while Mohammad Tahir took one.
In reply, J&K was bowled out for 161 runs total in the first innings to hand Railways first innings lead of 266. They were forced to follow on.
Suryansh Raina with 48 was the highest scorer for J&K while MusaifAijaz scored 39. Aakash Pandey took six wickets for Railways while MR Raut took two.
Forced to follow on, J&K were 5/0 in their second innings at the end of the second day’s play. They still trail Railway’s first-inning total by 261 runs.
The first two days of the play totally belonged to Mohammad Saif of Railways who displayed the highest level of brilliance on a track where none of the other batters from both teams could breach 50 run mark. So far during the first two days of play, 20 wickets have fallen in the match and Saif is the only one to breach 50 run mark and went on to remain unbeaten on 233 runs as he alone guided Railways to a big total of 427 run mark. There are very few examples of such an inning in the entire Ranji Trophy history and it was pure class displayed by Saif during the first two days of this match. Saif played such a knock against the same set of J&K bowlers who bundled out the star-studded Vidarbha side for less than 100 runs earlier in the tournament. It is now going to be an uphill task for J&K to bounce back in the match as they trail by 261 runs.
Brief Score:
1st Innings
Railways: 427/10 ( MohammadSaif 233* , Vivek 32, Abid 4-wkts)
J&K: 161/10 (Suryansh 48, Musaif 39, Aakash 6-wkts)
2nd Innings
J&K: 5/0 ( Khajuria 5*, Suryansh 0*) trail by 261 runs.