Jharkhand got off to a great start against Nagaland on day one in the pre-quarterfinals of the Ranji Trophy 2022. On the first day, Jharkhand played 87 overs and scored 402 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. This innings also includes brilliant centuries from Virat Singh and Kumar Kushagra. Kushagra is currently unbeaten on 112 runs with Anukul Roy (21).
Apart from the acumen, Virat also played a brilliant innings of 107 runs and scored his second century this season. In this match, Nagaland captain Rongsen Jonathan won the toss and elected to bowl. Jharkhand lost the wickets of Utkarsh Singh (36) and Mohammad Nazim (28) but Kumar Suraj and skipper Saurabh Tiwary put on a 62-run stand at number three.
Sooraj scored 66 runs with the help of 11 fours and a six while Tiwary added 29 runs. After Tiwary’s dismissal, Virat Singh came who first added 60 runs with Sooraj and later found the best partner in the form of acumen. Both scored 175 runs in 213 balls for the fifth wicket. Anukul Roy was playing till the end of the day after scoring 21 runs with Kushagra.
Virat Singh played a brilliant innings of 107 runs in 153 balls in the ongoing knockout match against Nagaland and handled the team with acumen. This is his second century in this Ranji season. He has so far scored 278 runs in 7 innings of 4 matches. He is at number 39 in the list of highest run scorers this season. That is, in terms of total runs in the season, he has completed a double century.
It is worth noting that earlier three rounds were played in the first phase of Ranji Trophy 2022. After all these rounds, except Group H and Plate Group, the top teams of all the 7 elite groups advanced to the quarter-finals. Now the winning team of this match will become the 8th team to reach the quarter finals. Nagaland was on top of the Plate Group by winning all three matches.
Whereas Jharkhand stood first in Group H, winning 2 out of 3 matches. Now after this match all the last-8 teams will be finalized. After IPL 2022, the second phase of Ranji Trophy 2022 will be played in which quarter-finals, semi-finals and final matches will be played. Which will probably start after May 30.