Assam without their star performer and skipper, Riyan Parag, face a herculean task of chasing a first innings score of 548 against Uttar Pradesh in their Ranji Trophy bout at Green Park in Kanpur. Batting first, Uttar Pradesh declared for 548 with Aryan Juyal and Karan Sharma scoring double centuries.
The stand-out bowler for Assam, again, is Silchar’s Rahul Singh. The left-arm off-spinner bowled 40 overs and kept making chances. New captain of Assam, Denish Das missed many tricks and one of them were not having a fielder at slip when Singh was bowling as the edges went to the boundary.
However, Singh provided Assam with the much needed breakthrough when he deceived Aryan Juyal and bowled him for 201. Singh’s next prey was captain of IPL franchisee KKR and UP in Ranji, Nitish Rana. Rana failed to read the length of the ball and was eventually caught at long off by debutant Parvez Musharaf who also plays from Silchar and is making his debut. Singh’s picked three crucial wickets in the first innings and third wicked was of Akshdeep Nath (54) brilliantly caught by Silchar’s Abhishek Thakuri, making a comeback in the Ranji Trophy. Thkuri also took a flyer of Mrinmoy Dutta’s bowling to dismiss Sameer Rizvi.
UP declared first innings for 548 and asked Assam to bat in the last session. It was going to be a daunting task for the openers against the new ball, but debutant Parvez Musharaf played a classical innings to remain unbeaten on a half-century. Musharaf plays his Club cricket for India Club and inter-district for Cachar. He was complemented well by the senior partner Rahul Hazarika who also remains unbeaten.
After playing 40 overs, Assam is 116 for no loss and they will start day three of the four-day match with a lot of confidence. All eyes of the people of Silchar will remain on Abhishek Thakuri along with Parvez Musharaf.
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