Ranji Trophy 2017/18: Gambhir, Nitish Rana Lead Delhi's Reply against Assam 1
Gautam Gambhir and Nitish Rana scored centuries to mark Delhi’s dominance on day two of the Ranji Trophy game against Assam. Both of them did not give even a slender chance to Assam bowlers so as they could come back in the game. Both the southpaws shared a total of 207 runs for the third wicket in 55.2 overs.
Delhi started off the day by taking leftover three wickets in the first hour of the day, for 34 runs.
The conditions were ideal for batting, but Unmukt Chand did not start off the season well. He was trapped in front of stumps by Krishna Das on a personal score of six.  Dhruv Shorey followed him soon. He played 27 balls to accumulate just one run. He was looking extra defensive and was bowled by Abu Nechim.
The wicket of Shorey marked a start of misery for Assam bowlers. They stood on their toes for more than 50 overs, in search of a wicket. Both Rana and Gambhir were making the fielders toil under extreme heat.
It was Gambhir who crossed the 50 run mark first, but the occasion wasn’t marked with any ritual celebration. In Rana’s case, he enjoyed the moment as it was his comeback match for Delhi after being dropped in the previous season.
In the final session, both the batsmen touched the three-figure mark, with Gambhir reaching the milestone with two boundaries towards long-on. This was his 40th first-class century.
Just six minutes ahead of the start of last half hour of the day, Rana edged one to the wicket-keeper Wasiqur Rahman which gave Assam something to enjoy. Abu Nechim dented Delhi in final 15 minutes again with the wicket of vice-captain Milind Kumar.
At stumps, Delhi were in a dominating position with a score of 269/4 on the board, with a lead of 11 runs.
Brief Scores –

Group A –

Delhi 269/4 (Gautam Gambhir 136*, Nitish Rana 110; Abu Nechim 3/39) lead by 11 runs vs Assam 258 at Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. 

Railways 182 and 27/3 trail by 41 runs vs Uttar Pradesh 250 (Akshdeep Nath 75, Anureet Singh 3/42) at Ekana International Cricket Stadium in Uttar Pradesh

Hyderabad vs Maharashtra (Second day washed out due to rain) at Gymkhana ground in Hyderabad.

 Group B –

Jharkhand 202 vs Kerala 250/8 (Mohammed Azharudeen 51; Sunny Gupta 6/94) at Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram

Rajasthan 330 vs Jammu and Kashmir 150/1 (Omar Ahmed Bandey 72*, Tanveer-ul-Haq 1-18) at Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur

Haryana 107 & 93/6 (Chaitanya Bishnoi 53*, Shaurya Sanandia 2/15) vs Saurashtra 278 at Chaudhary Bansi Lal Stadium in Haryana

Group C –

Andhra 231/7 (B Sumanth 72*; K Vignesh 2/46) vs Tamil Nadu 176  at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai

Odisha vs Tripura (Second day washed out due to rain) at Vikas Cricket Ground, Cuttack

Baroda 36/2 (Kedar Devdhar 20*, Puneet Datey 1/10) vs Madhya Pradesh 551/8 at Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore

Group D –

Services 103/1 (Navneet Singh 44*, Mohammad Shami 1/33) vs Bengal 552/9 declared at Palam A stadium in New Delhi

Goa 28/0 vs Chhattisgarh 458 at Goa Cricket Association Academy Ground in Porvorim 

Punjab 110/1 (Pargat Singh 64; Gurvinder Singh 1-4) vs Himachal Pradesh 729/8 (Prashant Chopra 338, Paras Dogra 99; Sandeep Sharma 4-149) at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala

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