Left-arm seamer Gurjapneet Singh took four wickets, and R Sai Kishore also took four, as Tamil Nadu bowled Uttarakhand out for 134 on day one of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group D round-two match at Chepauk, Chennai, on 18 October 2026.
Tamil Nadu then reached 85/2 after 27 overs, trailing by 49 runs at the close. The figures of Gurjapneet and Sai Kishore were 4-36 and 4-40 respectively, while another tally gives Gurjapneet's analysis as 4 for 34.
Gurjapneet struck early. Three of his four wickets came in his opening burst, and his first spell read 7-3-19-3. He used the morning moisture left by heavy overnight rain in Chennai, having opener Aarav Mahajan caught at the outside edge in the fifth over.
Four overs later he trapped Dega Nischal lbw. He also got one to brush the outside edge of Uttarakhand captain Kunal Chandela. A shorter ball hit Avneesh Sudha on the ribs, and Sudha needed treatment on the field. Sudha top-scored for the visitors with 54.
Speaking about his use of angles, Gurjapneet Singh said: "It [angles] is just instinct." He also spoke about his ambitions: "There is no satisfaction, I will say, unless I play for India." He described himself as a Tamil Nadu pacer.
The game was Gurjapneet's tenth in first-class cricket. He missed Tamil Nadu's first round because he was on India A duty in Puducherry, and the side started their 2026-27 campaign shakily against Rajasthan in Jaipur. Uttarakhand were last season's semi-finalists.
Sandeep Warrier, previously the leader of Tamil Nadu's seam attack, has left for Chhattisgarh. The other seamers, P Saravana Kumar, R Sonu Yadav, Deepesh Devendran and A Esakkimuthu, are inexperienced in red-ball cricket. Gurjapneet made his first-class debut in October 2024 and dismissed Cheteshwar Pujara in Coimbatore.
He was the highest wicket-taker among seamers in the 2025 Duleep Trophy and took a hat-trick against Nagaland in 2025. He has played for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL and is part of the BCCI's targeted pool of fast bowlers. The match runs from 18 to 21 October, so play continues at Chepauk on day two. Tamil Nadu's next Group D fixture is against Chandigarh from 2 to 5 November.
