Ranji Trophy: Baroda, Punjab, Himachal score outright wins
New Delhi, Nov 30 (IANS) Baroda, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh scored outright victories with a day to spare in the fifth round of Ranji Trophy cricket matches Saturday.
At the Moti Bagh Stadium in Vadodara, hosts Baroda registered a massive 246 runs over Madhya Pradesh in a match that saw 40 wickets falling inside three days.
The writing was already on the wall for Madhya Pradesh as they resumed the day at 58 for five in the second innings, needing 279 runs to avoid an embarrasing defeat.
It took just a little more than an hour for Baroda to wrap up the Madhya Pradesh innings for 90 runs. Left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt bagged five for 37 while India discard Yusuf Pathan got three for 27.
It took just five overs for Punjab to complete a clinical win over Haryana at the Bansi Lal Stadium in Rohtak.
Chasing 135, Punjab, who resumed the day 117 for five, got the 18 runs losing two wickets to register a three wicket win over hosts Haryana.
At the picturesque Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) Stadium in Dharmasla, overlooking the Dhauladhar range, Himachal Pradesh completed a big innings and 221-run win over Assam to get an additional bonus point.
Assam, who were blown away for 81 in the first innings, were skittled out for 161 runs in the second innings. Himachal had scored 463 in the first innings.
Rishi Dhawan bagged his second fifer in the match and finished with a match haul of 10 for 87.
Meanwhile at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Cheteshwar Pujara scored his 25th first class ton as Saurashtra finished the day at 326 for three in the first innings. Pujara was batting on 152 and Jaydev Shah on 133.
Saurashtra still trail Tamil Nadu, who had declared their first innings at 565 for eight, by 239 runs.
Results:
Group A
Punjab 184 and 135 for 7 (Sandeep Sharma 37*, Gurkeerat 37) beat Haryana 163 and 155 (Sandeep Sharma 6-50) by three wickets
Vidarbha 113 and 177 for 8 v Mumbai 261 and 330 for 4 dec (Tare 172, Rahane 133)
Jharkhand 289 and 28 for 0 v Gujarat 352 for 9 dec (Parthiv 189)
Odisha 226 and 169 for 4 (Samantray 50*) v Karnataka 379 (Rahul 67, Pandey 132)
Group B
Baroda 152 (Jalaj Saxena 6-42) and 244 (Y Pathan 104, Jalaj Saxena 7-82) beat Madhya Pradesh 60 (K Patel 4-9) and 90 (Bhargav Bhatt 5-37) by 246 runs
Saurashtra 326 for 3 (Pujara 152 not out, Jaydev 133 not out) v Tamil Nadu 565 for 8 dec (Abhinav Mukund 240, Dinesh Karthik 133)
Services 261 for 6 (Tiwari 71) v Bengal 431 (Das 165, Lahiri 108)
Rajasthan 185 and 15 for 0 v UP 226 and 313 for 5 (Prashant Gupta 144, Alam 42)
Group C
Himachal Pradesh 463 for 9 dec (Bipul 102 not out) beat Assam 81 (Dhawan 5-29) and 161 (Jadhav 61, Dhawan 5-58) by an innings and 221 runs
Andhra 317 and 27 for 1 v Maharashtra 440 (Zol 73, Jadhav 173, Motwani 95 not out, Vijaykumar 6-83) Scorecard
J&K 377 and 111 for 1 (Reshi 68 not out) v Kerala 296 for 8 (Jagadeesh 106, Samiullah Beigh 4-75)
Tripura 174 and 72 for 2 v Goa 252 and 177