Shubham Dubey’s 47* in 24 and Jitesh Sharma’s audacious half-century of 18 balls without a loss of 51 provided ample backing as Vidarbha overcame Uttarakhand’s formidable 141/3 in just 11.2 overs. Rain in Chandigarh caused the game to be trimmed to 13 overs each side. Down to 56/3 at the end of the powerplay, the two batsmen came together for a ferocious unbroken partnership of 89 runs, with Jitesh hitting five sixes and Dubey adding four more.
In Ranchi, Sourav Chauhan led Gujarat’s modest chase against Arunachal Pradesh with a 61 off just 18 balls. With a magnificent attack that included five fours and six sixes, Chauhan helped Gujarat overcome Arunachal’s 126/8 in just 7.4 overs.
With the help of captain Manan Vohra’s 81 and opener Arjun Azad’s equally impressive 79 not out, Chandigarh defeated Bihar by nine wickets in just 17 overs, chasing down their 171/6. At the BKC in Mumbai, Vohra scored two sixes and nine fours. While in his 43-ball knock, Azad also hit nine fours and four sixes. Meanwhile, keeper-opener Bipin Saurabh’s 46-ball 76, which laid the base, drove Bihar’s formidable score.
After five overs, Baroda looked vulnerable at 26/3, but a 111-run partnership between him and captain Krunal Pandya’s strike saw them rally for a challenging 145/5 in Jaipur. Pandya scored fifty-six runs, with his partner making forty-seven off of thirty-seven balls.
With a quick 73 from Shashank Chandrakar, Chhattisgarh defeated Mizoram 150/8 in Jaipur. Chandrakar put up an 89-run partnership with Shashank Singh, hitting three sixes and five fours en route to his game-winning strike, despite losing a couple of partners during the powerplay.
At the Ranchi JSCA Stadium, Pratham Singh hit a barrage of fours, enabling Railways to defeat Manipur’s pitiful 112/5 in less than ten overs and win by a commanding nine wickets to start the season. In his unbroken 37-ball 67, the Railways opener struck the fence 11 times and crossed it twice.
Goa’s captain Darshan Misal struck 61 off 27 balls, including five sixes and as many fours, to put the team in cruise control early in their season-opening match against Andhra Pradesh. With the support of Tunish Sawkar (34* off 11) and Krishnamurthy Siddharth (32* off 12), Goa was able to compile a match-winning 232/6 from their allotted overs.
Together with opener Sandeep Patnaik’s 57-ball 87, Subhranshu Senapati’s aggressive century of 119 off just 54 deliveries helped Odisha post and then successfully defend 226/2 against Assam. In his undefeated innings, the centurion hit eight sixes and ten more bouncers, putting on a 199-run second-wicket stand with Patnaik, who was as merciless against the Assam attack at DY Patil in Navi Mumbai. Three knocks of forty were part of Assam’s energetic chase, but not enough to get them across the finish line.
Maharashtra’s season got off to a great start as Ruturaj Gaikwad struck a match-winning 82 off just 40 balls, smashing Bengal’s 158 with more than three overs remaining. With nine fours and five sixes in his opening innings, the Maharashtra batsman took the opposition by surprise. He amassed 56 runs with Arshin Kulkarni and another 63 with captain Kedar Jadhav, who remained undefeated at 40 off 26.
Mumbai defeated Haryana by 8 wickets in their rain-shortened season opener with to a match-winning innings of 76 not out from captain Ajinkya Rahane. In his 43-ball innings, Rahane struck six boundaries and three sixes. He also had a half-century stand with Angkrish Rasghuvanshi and Shivam Dube, who each contributed 26 runs.
Tarang Goel (51 off 27), Vishvaraj Jadeja (50* off 29), Jay Gohil (42* off 23), and Sheldon Jackson (41 off 29) were the main players in another high-scoring match in Ranchi. Saurashtra overcame a nervous start that had them down 24/2 in the third over following Siddarth Kaul’s twin strikes to post a massive 211/4 from their 20 overs. Punjab lost the run chase from the moment their top order left for single-digit scores, as they were bowled out for 174 in the last over.
bowling demonstrations
Even though Mizoram managed to hold Chhattisgarh to 150, KC Cariappa’s outstanding 4-0-10-3, superbly aided by Mohit Jangra’s 3-23, proved in vain as Mizoram could only produce 105/8 in the chase.
Lukman Meriwala (3-25) and Amit Passi (4-26) split seven wickets between them to end Jammu and Kashmir’s valiant 146-run chase late in the day. At the beginning of the fourteenth over, J&K were cruising at 84/2, but a late collapse reduced them to just 126/9.
With an astounding 4-0-6-4 spell, Akash Pandey caused havoc for Manipur, limiting them to a subpar 112/5 from their 20 overs against Railways. After taking three wickets in a row to get the underdogs down to 33/4 in the eighth over, Akash came back to break the half-century mark in the 16th over to claim his fourth wicket.
Despite their high cost, Arjun Tendulkar (3–46) and Lakshay Garg (3–40) shared six wickets in Goa’s triumphant 232-run stand over Andhra Pradesh in Ranchi. After the top three laid a strong foundation, which featured Hanuma Vihari’s 33-ball 58, the pair struck at regular intervals to cheaply end AP’s middle and lower order.
Kerala easily won by 35 runs thanks to the exploits of Shreyas Gopal (4-17) and Vinod Kumar (4-22), who tore through the Himachal Pradesh batting order. Vinod delivered a few early knocks, but Gopal struck in the middle overs to limit the opposition. Following their deaths, the pair reappeared to cause another collapse, maintaining HP at 128 in response to Kerala’s 163/8.
