Lucknow. Thanks to young opener Sharandeep Singh’s second first-class century, Jharkhand scored 279 runs for one wicket in 86 overs against Uttar Pradesh at stumps on the first day of the Group A Ranji Trophy match here on Thursday. At the end of the first day’s play, Sharandeep was playing after scoring 128 runs in 269 balls. Aryaman Sen was present with him who had scored 64 runs in 126 balls.
Uttar Pradesh captain Aryan Juyal won the toss and invited the visiting team to bat. Sharandeep’s opening partner Shikhar Mohan also played well and scored 78 runs in 123 balls. Jharkhand is at third place in the points table and Uttar Pradesh is at fourth place. Jharkhand made a good start. The pair of Sharandeep and Shikhar looked to be in good rhythm. The right-left hand pair of Sharandeep and Shikhar rotated the strike and hit boundaries without any difficulty, due to which the Uttar Pradesh bowlers were under pressure.
Sharandeep and Shikhar added 147 runs for the first wicket. After this, Sharandeep further strengthened Jharkhand’s good start by making another partnership of 132 runs for the second wicket. Vidarbha leads the group with 25 points while Andhra is second with 22 points. Jharkhand has 18 points and Uttar Pradesh is at fourth place with 17 points. Only victory can keep Uttar Pradesh’s hopes of reaching the knockouts alive.
The host team will not have the services of Rinku Singh as he is in the national team for the ongoing T20 International series against New Zealand. The left-handed batsman has scored 341 runs this season and his two centuries in two consecutive matches helped Uttar Pradesh gain a significant first innings lead. Apart from Rinku, Dhruv Jurel is also not included in the Uttar Pradesh team.
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