Ranji Trophy: Services take full control, reduce Maharashtra to 93-5 on day 2

Services seized the upper-hand against Maharashtra on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Group C match on Friday, with the visiting team requiring a further 148 runs to avoid an innings defeat here.

Services made 285 in their first innings after bundling out Maharashtra for 44 and then reduced the visitors to 93 for 5 in the second innings.

Resuming at 141 for 4, Services were well-served by Ravi Chauhan's half-century (65, 180 balls, 6 fours) and useful knocks of 47 each by Vikas Hathwala and AP Sharma as the lead swelled to 241.

Services then left Maharashtra tottering at 93 for 5 to take full control of the match at the Air force Complex Ground in Palam.

Ruturaj Gaikwad fell for a first-ball duck after a first-innings score of 4, while the other opener M S Trunkwala (1) was forced to retire hurt.

The experienced Ankit Bawne, who failed in the first innings, once again cut a sorry figure as he was bowled by Sachidanand Pandey for a six-ball duck.

Chirag Khurana (4) was removed by Pandey, while Rahul Tripathi (11) was dismissed by Diwesh Pathania.

Naushad S Shaik (40 batting, 85 balls, 4 fours) and wicketkeeper Vishant More (33 batting, 80 balls, 6 fours) then defied the Services attack for close to 25 overs and ensured that Maharashtra did not suffer any more setbacks.

For the hosts, right-arm medium-pacer Sachidanand Pandey picked up three wickets.

There was no play possible in the game between Tripura and Odisha in Agartala for the second successive day.

Brief scores: Maharashtra 44 all out in 30.2 overs (PS Poonia 5/11, Sachidanand Pandey 3/18) and 93 for 5 in 34 overs (NS Shaikh 40; Sachidanand Pandey 3/20) vs Services 285 all out in 95.2 overs (Ravi Chauhan 65, AP Sharma 47, Vikas Hathwala 47, Rajat Paliwal 42; MD Ingale 5/73, AA Sanklecha 2/78).

At Ranchi: Jharkhand 259 all out in 84 overs (Saurabh Tiwary 81, Kumar Deobrat 35, Abid Mushtaq 5/56) vs J&K 135 for 3 in 36 overs (Suryansh Raina 76; Ashish Kumar 3/46).

At Dehardun: Assam 294 all out in 92 overs (Riyan Parag 123, Gokul Sharma 47, Kunal Saikia 36; Sunny 3/34, Mayank Mishra 3/55, Rahil Shah 3/71) vs Uttarakhand 32 for 4 in 19 overs (Ranjeet Mali 3/11).

At Raipur: Haryana 123 all out in 28.4 overs (AK Chahal 34 not out, Ankit Kumar 26; Pankaj Rao 3/26) vs Chhattisgarh 119 all out in 35.1 overs (Vishal Singh 45 not out, Jiwanjot Singh 24; AK Chahal 5/25, Harshal V Patel 4/40).