The quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy concluded recently: here's how out-of-favour Indian Test players fared ahead of the semis.
After the fanfare of international superstars like Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, and Virat Kohli returning to domestic cricket subsided, business resumed as usual when the knockout rounds came about in the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season.
While Gujarat demolished Saurashtra’s chances by defeating them by an innings and 98 runs, Mumbai and Vidarbha also secured their safe passage to the semi-final stage on day four, defeating Haryana and Tamil Nadu respectively.
Kerala had to do the hard grind on day five to draw the match and qualify for the semi-final against Gujarat denying Jammu & Kashmir a historic first as they nearly missed out on the semi-final berth under Paras Dogra’s captaincy.
Thakur continues dream run, Rahane shines too
Mumbai made light work of Haryana, who topped Elite Group C ahead of sides like Kerala, Bengal, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab. Most of it was down to Shardul Thakur’s six-wicket haul in the first innings, as he ran through Haryana’s lower order to ensure Mumbai took a slender lead of 14 runs in the first innings.
In the second innings, Mumbai skipper Ajinkya Rahane stepped up when his side required the most, stitching three long partnerships with Siddesh Lad, Suryakumar Yadav, and Shivam Dube en route to a brilliant century, ending with 108 runs off 180 balls.
After faltering in the first innings, Suryakumar Yadav scored 70 runs off 88 balls, hitting eight fours and two sixes, showing that he can score big in red-ball games too. Thakur came back to haunt Haryana yet again as he picked three more wickets, missing out on a 10-wicket haul by a solitary wicket.
How did the other out-of-favour Test players fare?
Karun Nair continued his dream run in domestic cricket as he scored a century, amassing a total of 122 off 243 on a tricky pitch in Nagpur evidenced by the fact that no other batter, barring Yash Rathod crossed the 75-run mark. In the second innings, Nair could only muster 29 runs as Rathod smashed a century to help Vidarbha make it to the semi-final.
Jayant Yadav, another forgotten man in the Indian set-up, did well in the last round as he was the bowler Haryana looked to when they wanted to break a long partnership. Yadav dismissed Shams Mulani in the first innings and got the wickets of Lad and Mulani in the second innings apart from scoring 13 and 27 runs across the two innings.
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