Buchi Babu Tournament: Ishan Kishan Makes His Return to Red-Ball Cricket; Other Batters Pile on the Runs

The opening day of the Buchi Babu Invitational Cricket Tournament saw Ishan Kishan mark his return to red-ball cricket, even as batters from other teams piled on the runs across four venues in the first round of the competition.

Group A – Madhya Pradesh vs Jharkhand (Tirunelveli)

Kishan’s return to red-ball cricket began with him taking wicketkeeping duties and pouching three catches, including a stunning diving catch of Ramveer Gurjar, even as defending champions Madhya Pradesh posted 225/8 in 89.5 overs at stumps.

Electing to bat first, a youthful Madhya Pradesh slipped to 33/2, which became 47/3 soon. After that, Arham Aquil (57) and Shubham S. Kushwah (84) put on a stand of 84 runs for the fourth wicket. But once Aquil fell, it triggered a collapse for Madhya Pradesh, despite a 54-run stand between Kushwah and Aniket Verma to end their day at 225/8. For Jharkhand, Shubham Singh, Saurabh Shekhar, Vivekanand Tiwary and Aditya Singh grabbed two scalps each.

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Brief scores: Madhya Pradesh 225/8 in 90 overs (Shubham S Kushwah 84, Arham Aquil 57; Vivekanand Tiwary 2-25, Aditya Singh 2-29) against Jharkhand

Group B – Railways vs Gujarat (Salem)

Vivek Singh hit a fine 104, while Pratham Singh smashed an excellent 130 and Shubham Chaudhary made a nice 88 as the trio’s efforts led Railways to a mammoth 429/6 against Priyank Panchal-led Gujarat. With the trio’s batting efforts, Railways managed to end their day strongly, despite Gujarat staging a late fightback by picking four wickets for 46 runs. For Gujarat, left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai took three wickets to be the side’s standout bowler.

Brief scores: Railways 429/6 in 90 overs (Pratham Singh 130, Vivek Singh 104; Siddharth Desai 3-101, Chintan Gaja 2-58) against Gujarat

Group C – Mumbai vs Haryana (Coimbatore)

A superb 130 not out by Dheeru Singh, followed by a fine 91 by young Nishant Sindhu, a member of the 2022 U19 World Cup-winning Indian side, helped Haryana post 288/6 against current Ranji Trophy winners Mumbai.

Electing to bat first, Haryana found themselves in tatters at 29-3 in the seventh over, with Mumbai pacer Sylvester D’Souza taking two scalps. But Sindhu and Dheeru joined forces to share a 168-run stand for the fourth wicket. After Sindhu fell, Haryana lost two more wickets, though they have Dheeru unbeaten at the crease.

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Brief scores: Haryana 288/6 in 90 overs (Dheeru Singh 130 not out, Nishant Sindhu 91; Junaid Khan 2-36, Atharva Ankolekar 2-53) against Mumbai

Group D – Jammu & Kashmir vs Chandigarh (Natham)

Chhattisgarh were bowled out for 278 in 76.4 overs, as Ayush Pandey top-scored with 138, while captain Amandeep Khare made 65. In response, Jammu and Kashmir struggled to end Day One at 29/2 in 12.5 overs. They lost Ahmed Banday and Vivrant Sharma, as J&K trail Chhattisgarh by 249 runs.

Electing to bat first, Pandey and Shashank Chandrakar shared an opening stand of 52 runs, before the former and Khare sharing 143 runs for the third wicket got Chhattisgarh’s innings on track.

But a late collapse saw them being bowled out for two runs short of 280, before ending the day on ascendancy by taking two J&K scalps.

Brief scores: Chhattisgarh 278 in 76.4 overs (Ayush Pandey 138, Amandeep Khare 65; Abid Mushtaq 4-47) lead Jammu and Kashmir 29/2 in 12.5 overs (Shubham Khajuria 12 not out, Mayank Yadav 1-6) by 249 runs.