The new Ranji Trophy season has begun with a run of lopsided results, and Mohammed Siraj was in the thick of it.The India pacer, captain of Hyderabad for the first two matches, helped his side beat Tripura by an innings and 40 runs at the Gymkhana Ground.
The captian himself had a quiet game. He went wicketless in the first innings and picked up two in the second. Spinners, meanwhile, made the most of the surface: 30 wickets fell in total, with tweakers bagging 27 and one being a runout. The remaining two were scalped by Siraj himself. Left-arm spinner Tanay Thyagarajan took nine wickets in the match, while Aniketh Reddy claimed five in the first innings as Tripura were bowled out for 134. Thyagarajan then took six more as Tripura were dismissed for 120.
Opener Tanmay Agarwal made 54 as the southern players took to batting and the lower order helped Hyderabad past Tripura’s total. As Tripura carefully negotiated the turn on the red-soil pitch, Hyderabad was advised to rejig its fielding positions. Rahul Radesh was moved to short fine leg, and the breakthrough came almost immediately. He took a good catch off Tanay Thyagarajan to dismiss Hrituraj Ghosh Roy.
Elsewhere, Uttar Pradesh were just as dominant. They posted 540 and then dismissed Bihar for 141 and 132 at Rajgir, winning by an innings and 267 runs. Mumbai needed only one innings against Chandigarh at the Wankhede. They made 429, and won by an innings and 155 runs. Tushar Deshpande took a hat-trick followed by a five-wicket haul, as Chandigarh were bowled out for just 78 in their first innings.All three matches ended inside three days, so it is a strong way to open the season for each of them.