Raipur
Chhattisgarh secured three valuable points from their drawn Ranji Trophy match against Railways, held at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium in Nava Raipur Atal Nagar from November 6-9. Right-arm medium pacer M. Ravi Kiran delivered an impressive bowling performance, taking five wickets to limit Railways to 351 in response to Chhattisgarh’s imposing 500-run first innings.
Chhattisgarh, opting to bat first, posted a formidable 500 runs in 154.5 overs before declaring with nine wickets down. Sanjeet Desai led the batting with his second century of the season, scoring 110 runs. Amandeep Khare contributed a solid 88, Anuj Tiwari added 84, and Ajay Mandal chipped in with 66 runs. Railways’ bowlers responded with Karn Sharma taking three wickets, while Adarsh Singh and Akash Pandey claimed two wickets each.
In reply, Railways scored 351 runs in 111.2 overs, with Suraj Ahuja top-scoring at 135 and Vivek Singh adding 86. At stumps on the third day, Railways seemed steady at over 300 runs for three wickets, but on the fourth day, they struggled as Ravi Kiran’s bowling dismantled their lineup.
Chhattisgarh’s bowling was led by Ravi Kiran’s five-wicket haul, supported by Vasudev Bareth with three wickets and Ajay Mandal with two.
In their second innings, Chhattisgarh put up 129 runs in 32 overs, losing five wickets, with Sanjeet Desai remaining unbeaten on 51. Railways’ bowlers Yuvraj and Adarsh Singh took three and two wickets, respectively.
Set a target of 279, Railways reached 35 for the loss of one wicket in 7.4 overs before the match concluded in a draw.
