Ranji Trophy: Jadeja, Nair, Shami shine in opening round action

Ravindra Jadeja, Karun Nair and Mohammed Shami starred in the Ranji Trophy 2026-27's opening round. Jadeja scored a ton and took three wickets, while Nair hit 155. Youngsters like Vihaan Malhotra also impressed with centuries for Punjab.

Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, batter Karun Nair, pacer Mohammed Shami and several uncapped players emerged as stars as the first round of Ranji Trophy 2026-27 action came to an end on Wednesday.

Jadeja won a 'Player of the Match' award for his knock of 102 and a three-wicket haul in Saurashtra's draw against Chhattisgarh. For Punjab, in their draw against Assam, three young batters, including U19 star Vihaan Malhotra, stepped up and notched centuries. Skipper Ayush Badoni's five-wicket haul and a fighting 85 in the second innings could not prevent a nine-wicket loss to Bengal.

Elite, Group A

In the elite, Group A action, skipper Shubham Sharma (106* in 200 balls, with seven fours and three sixes) was a star as Madhya Pradesh scored 249/6 declared in their second innings. Electing to field first, J&K had skittled out MP for 196 in the first innings, with Shubham (79) standing defiant then as well, in the face of onslaught from Rohit Sharma (5/36) and Sunil Kumar (4/69). MP gained a 76-run lead by skittling out the defending champions for 120 runs, with three wickets going to Avesh Khan. Later, with MP struggling at 87/5 in their second inning, Shubham stepped up with a century and later a partnership between him and Saransh Jain (35*) of 87 runs taking MP to a lead of 325 runs. Auqib Nabi (3/53) was a standout bowler for J&K in the second innings, J&K was given 326 runs to chase with a day in hand and sunk to 12/5, with Avesh Khan once again in thick of action with three important wickets. Hands were shook with J&K at 88/7, with Kanhaiya Wadhawan (27*) and Auqib (30*) unbeaten.

Elsewhere in Group A, Vidarbha, three-time Ranji champions managed a win by 160 runs against Puducherry. Vidarbha had elected to bat first, with centuries from Akshay Wadkar (198 in 363 balls, with 23 fours) and Yash Rathod (134 in 180 balls, with 11 fours and a six) taking them to 428 in the first innings. Puducherry posted 313 in their first innings, still trailing by 115 runs. On the final day of action, fifties came from Aman Mokhade (65 in 93 balls, with four boundaries) and Dhruv Shorey (69* in 75 balls, with seven fours and a six), taking Vidarbha to 175/3 declared. Chasing 291 runs, Puducherry was skittled out for 130 runs, with spinner Harsh Dubey (4/29) and Parth Rekhade (3/43) being pick of the bowlers. Skipper Akshay was chosen the 'Player of the Match' for his knock.

Elite Group B

The clash between Saurashtra and Chhattisgarh ended in a draw. After centuries from Jadeja (102) and Prerak Mankad (129) took Saurashtra to 392 runs in their first innings, Chhattisgarh trailed by 80 runs, managing 312 runs, with Jadeja (3/40) being the pick of the bowlers and Jaydev Unadkat, Chetan Sakariya getting two wickets each. On the final day of action, starting from 45/0, Saurashtra batted till the end, with Chirag Jani (127*) following up a first innings 83 with a ton and Jay Gohil (29*) unbeaten. Jadeja took home the POTM honours for his all-round show.

Punjab also managed to hold Assam to a draw, with trio of centurions, Vihaan Malhotra, Salil Arora and Emanjot Singh Chahal being the stars, while veteran Umesh Yadav also taking seven wickets in the match, including a first-innings fifer. Assam posted 373 on the board with centuries from skipper Denish Das (103 in 186 balls, with 15 fours) and Sibsankar Roy (143* in 295 balls, with 20 fours and a six) in the first innings. Umesh (5/70) and Gurnoor Brar (2/85) stood out for Punjab. In Punjab's first innings, which stretched till the final day of action, Vihaan (103 in 208 balls, with 11 fours), Salil (110 in 152 balls, with 14 fours and three sixes) and Emanjot (114* in 137 balls, with 10 fours and four sixes) taking Punjab to a 105-run lead, declaring at 478/6. In their second innings, Assam scored 157/6, with Umesh (2/11), Harpreet Brar (2/44) and Gurnoor (1/38) bowling well for Punjab. Emanjot was declared as POTM for his century and a spell of 2/68.

In the clash between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, a century from Karun Nair (155 in 242 balls, with 16 fours and two sixes) pushed Karnataka to 337/9 declared in their second innings, giving AP 194 to chase. Karnataka had opted to bat first, but skittled out for 274 runs, with skipper Ravichandran Smaran (126) scoring a crucial ton. AP followed with 418 on the board, with Seeram Rahul (119 in 222 balls, with 10 fours), Revanth Reddy (97 in 143 balls, with 13 fours) and Shaik Rasheed (54 in 121 balls, with four boundaries) contributing big runs towards a 144-run lead. Starting the final day at 176/4, Nair posted a fine century, taking his side to 337 runs, giving AP just a shade below 200 to chase. At the end of the day, AP could manage only 104/4, with Sreeram (35*) and Revanth (20*) unbeaten. KL Rahul was a flop though, with scores of 4 and 1 across both innings.

Elite, Group C

Bengal made a lightwork of 89 run target after a collective effort saw Delhi being skittled out for 277 in their second innings despite a fighting 134-ball 85 from skipper Badoni. Delhi was aiming to overcome a 189 run first innings lead, after Bengal followed Delhi's first-innings total of 240 with 429 in their first innings, with centuries from Abishek Porel (149 in 228 balls, with 17 fours and a six) and Sudip Kumar Gharami (133 in 235 balls, with 19 fours). Chasing 89 runs, skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran (34*) and Ankur Paul (38) did the bulk of scoring as target was chased down in 15.3 overs. Shami was an unsung hero, with figures of 4/30 in the first innings followed by another wicket in the second inning.

Elite, Group D

India's under-19 star and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) all-rounder Kanishk Chauhan (50 and 2/27) starred in Haryana's seven-wicket win over Himachal Pradesh. In response to HP's first innings total of 253 runs, Haryana posted 296 runs in their first innings, with Kanishk's brisk 50 in 79 balls and a partnership with Samant Jakhar (38) pushing Haryana to the score from being six wickets down for 198 runs. Haryana was skittled out for just 113 runs in their second innings, with first-innings hero Anshul Kamboj following his four-fer with two more wickets and Kanishk getting two wickets as well. In the chase, Haryana was down 23/3, but Himanshu Rana (37*) and Dheeru Singh (24*) took the team home.

(ANI)

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