Ranji Trophy Round 9, Day 3 Round-up: Ankit Sharma takes 13 wickets in the match to hand MP an outright win
Rajasthan secured an outright win over Orissa by two wickets in Jaipur, in what proved out to be a cliffhanger in their Round 9 clash in the 2015 Ranji Trophy.
Resuming at their overnight score of 78/2, they needed 152 more runs to win. Puneet Yadav and SS Dobal hit half-centuries as the Orissa bowlers pushed hard for victory but fell two wickets short.
Rajashtan were bowled out for a meagre 51 in their first innings which is the second-lowest score made by a winning team in their first innings to win a Ranji Trophy match.
Rajasthan (toss) 51 (Sahoo 6-33) and 231/8 (Yadav 59, Dobal 52, Mohanty 3-65) beat Odisha 151 (Sarangi 43, Choudhary 6-27) and 129 (Choudhary 4-31, Pankaj 4-43) by two wickets in Jaipur.
Assam were bowled out for 143 in their first innings, and were following-on at 72/2 against Bengal at Guwahati, thereby trailing Bengal by 229 runs. Bengal made 444/6d in their first innings.
Assam (toss) 143 (Dinda 4-39) and 72/2 trail Bengal 444/6d (Goswami 112*, Shaw 99, Mondal 87, Chatterjee 65) by 229 runs in Guwahati.
Maharashtra were bowled out for 280 in their second innings against Karnataka, thereby setting them a target of 293 to win the game.
Karnataka in their second innings were 61/1 and needed another 232 runs to win on the final day. Vinay Kumar, the Karnataka skipper picked up 4 wickets in the second innings. Shrikant Mundhe top scored for Maharashtra with 81, while Rahul Tripathi made 78.
Karnataka (toss) 180 (Agarwal 33, Sanklecha 4-53) and 61/1 trail Maharashtra 212 (Bawne 87*, Aravind 3-35, Vinay 2-44) and 280 (Mundhe 81, Tripathi 78, Vinay 4-71) by 232 runs in Pune.
In Group B, Madhya Pradesh kept their knockout hopes alive by beating Andhra Pradesh by an innings and 9 runs in Indore.
Ankit Sharma was the star performer for MP as he picked up 13 wickets in the match, with a seven-wicket haul in the second innings. Andhra were bowled out for 56 in the first innings and 214 in the second, in reply to MP’s first innings score of 279.
MP (toss) 279 (Bhatia 81, Rameez Khan 89, Ayyappa 5-66) beat Andhra 56 (Ankit Sharma 6-17) and 214 (Ankit 7-91) by an innings and 9 runs in Indore.
Gujarat put up a spirited effort, but still lagged behind Mumbai’s mammoth first innings total of 531 as they ended Day 3 on 355/7, aided by Bhargav Merai’s 150 and Axar Patel’s 88, thus trailing Mumbai by 176 runs with three wickets remaining.
Gujarat (toss) 354/7 (Merai 148*, Axar 88) trail Mumbai 531 (Herwadkar 192, Suryakumar Yadav 103, Iyer 75, Axar 3-99) by 185 runs in Mumbai.
Uttar Pradesh gave a solid reply to Baroda’s first innings total of 321, as Umang Sharma hit an unbeaten 195*, aided by Praveen Kumar’s 83, as they finished Day 3 466/7, thereby leading Baroda by 145 runs.
Uttar Pradesh 466/7 (Umang Sharma 195*, Praveen Kumar 83, Munaf 2-42) lead Baroda (toss) 321 (Rayudu 70, Waghmode 56, Chawla 3-41, Praveen Kumar 2-50) by 145 runs in Greater Noida.
In Group C, Saurashtra defeated J&K by an innings and 63 runs as J&K were bowled out for 296 in their second innings, despite Ian Chauhan’s 127. Kamlesh Makvana was the wrecker-in-chief as he picked up seven wickets in the second innings, thereby giving Saurashtra an outright win.
Saurashtra (toss) 497 (Jackson 121, Unadkat 92, Jogiyani 41) beat J&K 138 (Sanandia 5-53) and 296 (Ian Chauhan 127, Makwana 7-100) by an innings and 63 runs in Jammu.
Tripura were dismissed for 229 in their first innings and were 9/0 in their second thereby trailing Services by 274 runs in Agartala. Services posted a gigantic first innings total of 512 riding on Rajat Paliwal’s double-hundred.
Tripura 229 (Banik 46, Pathania 3-49) and 9/0 trail Services (toss) 512 (Paliwal 203, Lohchab 95, Rana Dutta 4-79) by 274 runs in Agartala.
The details of the other matches from the ninth round of the 2015 Ranji Trophy are as follows:
Haryana 241 (Saini 67, Bishnoi 47, Jangid 4-41, Sarvate 4-50) and 66/2 trail Vidarbha (toss) 504/7d (Fazal 126, Jangid 110, Sarvate 103*, Shanware 55, Harshal 2-70) by 197 runs in Nagpur.
Punjab (toss) 206 (Yuvraj 49, Sran 33. Chandrasekhar 3-43) and 192 (Khera 43*, Malolan 4-53) beat TN 68 (Rajwinder 6-29, Harbhajan 3-30) and 69 (Harbhajan 7-37) by 243 runs in Dindigul.
Himachal Pradesh 163 and 24/4 (Monish 0-4) beat Kerala (toss) 103 (Rahul Singh 6-19) and 83 (Bipul 6-33) by six wickets in Mallapuram.
Hyderabad 143/9 (Jaskaran 3-32, Kaushal 3-35) and 167/6 (Nadeem 2-63) trail Jharkhand 388/8d (toss) (Tiwary 209*) by 76 runs in Hyderabad.