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Ranji Trophy Semi-Final Day 2 Round-Up: Azharuddeen Ton, Dube's Fifer Headline Day 2

Aakash Saini

Azharuddeen and Shivam Dube [Source: @Joppan---, @CricCrazyJohns/x]Azharuddeen and Shivam Dube [Source: @Joppan---, @CricCrazyJohns/x]

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The semifinals of the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season continued on February 18 with Day 2 of action in Ahmedabad and Nagpur. In the first semifinal, Kerala batters pounced on Gujarat’s opening day misery by mounting big runs. In the second knockout fixture, Vidarbha bowlers kept their team in contention despite coming up short to a sensational Shivam Dube earlier in the day.

Here's a complete round-up of Day 2 of Ranji Trophy semis:

Mohammed Azharuddeen Flays Gujarat Bowlers With Unbeaten Ton

Kerala batters reaped the rewards of their opening day perseverance by mounting big runs on Day 2 of the first semifinal match against Gujarat in Ahmedabad. While captain Sachin Baby failed to add to his overnight score of 69, wicketkeeper-batter Mohammed Azharuddeen and number seven Salman Nizar batted out for the subsequent 61 overs to add 149 runs for the sixth wicket to Kerala’s Day 1 total of 206. 

After taking Kerala past the 350-run mark, Nizar got trapped in front by Vishal Jayswal (1-57) to bring an end to his colossal stand with Azharuddeen. The wicketkeeper-batter notched up his second first-class century and reached 149* from 303 balls by stumps on Day 2. The unbeaten centurion will resume Kerala’s innings on Day 3 at 418-7 from 177 overs alongside Aditya Sarwate (10*).

For Gujarat, Arzan Nagaswalla (3-64) picked up two wickets in the day to add to his opening day breakthrough. Vishal Jayswal, Priyajitsing Jadeja and Ravi Bishnoi also chipped in with a wicket each.

Shivam Dube Skittles Vidarbha, But Batters Fail To Seize Advantage

With Vidarbha resuming its first innings on Day 2 at an imposing 308-5, Mumbai all-rounder Shivam Dube picked up three quick wickets to envelop Akshay Wadekar’s troops for just 383 inside the second morning. Dube finished with astonishing figures of 5-49 from his 11.5 overs to pick up his third five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.

However, Mumbai’s star-studded line-up failed to capitalise their newfound momentum by coming up short against Vidarbha bowlers later in the day. Batting out the remaining 59 overs of Day 2 to reach 188-7 by stumps, the Ranji giants still find themselves another 195 runs behind Vidarbha with only three wickets in hand.

Opening batter Akash Anand composed 67 of those runs in an unbeaten cause and will resume Mumbai innings on Day 3 alongside tail-ender Tanush Kotian. For Vidarbha, left-arm spinner Parth Rekhade snared the big wickets of Indian internationals Ajinkya Rahane, Suryakumar Yadav and Shivam Dube to finish the day with figures of 3-16 in 16 overs.