Gaja's 8 wickets bamboozles Rajasthan; six-for from Jadeja props up Saurashtra

Bowlers emerged as runaway heroes in all the Ranji Trophy Group B encounters as not a single side was allowed to score more than 250 in their first innings.

Bowlers emerged as runaway heroes in all the Ranji Trophy Group B encounters as not a single side was allowed to score more than 250 in their first innings.

In Thiruvanthpuram, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja took a six-wicket haul to enable Saurashtra bundle out Kerala for a meagre 225 on the first day.

At stumps, Saurashtra were 37 without loss with Robin Uthappa unbeaten on 20 and Snell Patel on 16.

Opting to bat upon winning the toss, Kerala lost their openers early but Rohan Prem (29) and Sanju Samson (68) managed to steady the boat.

The duo put on 82 runs stand together to take the team past 100-run mark.

However, Prem's dismissal triggered a collapse and Kerala kept losing wickets at regular intervals and even Samson failed to put up a resistance, falling for 68 off 104 balls, which included six boundaries and three sixes.

Salman Nizar (28) chipped in with some runs down the order but Kerala's innings folded in 78 overs.

Jadeja finished with impressive figures of six for 112.

Elsewhere in Surat, Gujarat’s Chintan Gaja wrecked havoc with his seam movement by sneering out eight wickets to skittle out Rajasthan for 153.

Gaja started his wicket-taking spree as early as the third ball of the ball of the match when he cleaned up Rajasthan opener Amikumar Gautam for naught. Gaja then ran through the Rajasthan batting order to reduce them to 62 for 6. From there on Tejinder Singh and R Bishnoi showed some resistance but it was not enough in front of Gaja who returned with career-best figures of 8 for 40 in his 15 overs.

In reply, Gujarat were comfortably placed at 90 for 1 with mainstay Priyank Panchal batting on 35.

Brief scores Group B matches:

Kerala 1st innings: 225 all out (Sanju Samson 68; Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 6/112) vs Saurashtra 1st innings 37 for no loss.

At Surat: Rajasthan 1st innings: 153 (Chintan Gaja 8/40) vs Gujarat 1st innings: 90 for one (Samit Gohil 46, Priyank Panchal 34 batting).

At Rohtak: Haryana 1st innings: 119 for 7 (Himanshu Rana 35; Mohammed Mudhasir 4/34, Ram Dayal 3/35) vs J&K.