
Courtesy: BCCI
Siddharth Desai, the Gujarati left-arm spinner, picked up a nine-wicket haul against Uttarakhand within the first session of play on day one during Ranji Trophy 2024-25 Group B clash at the Gujarat College Ground in Ahmedabad. The 24-year-old was on the cusp of a 10-wicket haul, which would have been the second of the ongoing Ranji Trophy season, but his teammate Vishal Jayswal picked up the final wicket of Uttarakhand, to help bowl them out for just 111 runs in 30 overs.
After winning the toss, Ravikumar Samarth, the captain of Uttarakhand, decided to bat first, but his decision didn’t work out well for the team as Siddharth Desai, who opened the bowling, took three wickets in just four balls in the fifth over during the first half hour. The left-arm spinner went on to run through the entire middle to lower order of the Uttarakhand batting lineup with only the opener Avneesh Sudha and Sashwat Dangwal getting into the 30s.
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Siddharth Desai registers best Ranji Trophy bowling figures for Gujarat
Upon taking the ninth wicket in the innings, Siddharth Desai needed his teammate Vishal Jayswal to not pick up a wicket in the closing stages of the morning session on day one of the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 clash, to give himself the best chance to take the 10-wicket haul in the next over. But, on the last ball of the 30th over, Vishal Jayswal cleaned up Harsh Patwal of Uttarakhand, to finish off the opposition’s first innings in the first session on the opening day of the match.
Despite that, Siddharth Desai was able to register the best bowling figures of 9/36 for Gujarat in the history of the Ranji Trophy, beating the previous best figures of 8/21 from Jasu Patel against Saurashtra in the 1960-61 season. Moreover, in the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2024-25 season, Anshul Kamboj of Haryana has already picked up a 10-wicket haul in an innings against Kerala, becoming the third player to achieve this feat in the competition.