Manprit Juneja anchored the Gujarat innings to a first innings lead against Baroda with an unbeaten double century. He was well complemented by Axar Patel who scored his maiden first-class ton and remained unbeaten in the effort.
Chandrakant Sakure bowled Madhya Pradesh to an innings and 64-run win in their opening game of Ranji Trophy 2016-17 with a six-wicket haul in the second innings after Uttar Pradesh were asked to follow on.
Railways took a first innings lead against Punjab and opened their account in the points table with three points.
Group A, Round 1 – Day 4 Round up:
Baroda vs Gujarat in Jaipur: Baroda 1st inn 544/8 decl in 155 overs (A Waghmode 142, D Hooda 118, S Singh 66*, A Patel 3/136); Gujarat 1st inn 555/4 in 178 overs (M Juneja 201*, A Patel 110*, B Merai 70). Match drawn. Gujarat took first innings lead.
With Gujarat trailing by 267 runs in the first innings, Manprit Juneja and Rujul Bhatt resumed the innings on the fourth morning. Bhatt retired hurt after adding 20 runs to his overnight score, but Juneja anchored the innings to a first innings lead. He found an able ally in Axar Patel in ensuring the team three points without losing a wicket on the final day of the match.
Having resumed his innings on 66, Juneja was unbeaten on 201 while Axar scored his maiden first-class century as they took the team to 555 for four until the match was called off.
Punjab vs Railways in Palam (New Delhi): Railways 1st inn 331/10 in 118 overs (S Shukla 128, A Yadav 81, S Kaul 5/68, V Choudhary 2/59); Punjab 1st inn 215/10 in 80.1 overs (G Mann 66, M Choudhary 4/56, K Sharma 2/36); Railways 2nd inn 245/7 decl. in 80.1 overs (S Shukla 97, M Rawat 48, V Choudhary 3/63, S Kaul 2/35); Punjab 2nd inn 170/3 in 58 overs (U Kaul 61*, M Singh 41*, A Singh 1/22) Match drawn. Railways took first innings lead
With a first innings lead already secured, Railways declared their second innings on 245 for seven on the fourth day after resuming on 180 for two in search of a win. Being sent back by Siddharth Kaul, Shivakant Shukla missed out on a second successive ton. S Kaul claimed two wickets while V Choudhary picked three before Railways declared their innings setting Punjab a 362 run target.
After being left on 67 for two, Uday Kaul then played a patient knock and had taken Punjab to 170 for three with Mandeep Singh. Stand-in captain Yuvraj Singh was caught by Ashish Yadav off his own bowling for 17. The match ended in a draw.
Madhya Pradesh vs Uttar Pradesh: MP 1st inn 465/10 in 125.5 overs (HS Bhatia 216*, A Sharma 61, I Ahmed 3/58); UP 1st inn 176 all out in 63.2 overs (E Dwivedi 37, K Yadav 36, IC Pandey 3/65 G Yadav 4/44); Following on – UP 2nd inn 225 all out in 99.4 overs (T Srivastava 93, S Khan 49, C Sakure 6/40) MP won by innings and 64 runs
Chandrakant Sakure wrecked the UP innings after Suresh Raina-led team were asked to follow on, on the third day. He set the tone for the day with the wicket of Sarfaraz Khan and finished with six wickets in the bag including that of opener Tanmay Srivastava. In an effort to keep his team in the fray, the UP opener scored 93 off 310 balls until the pacer sent him back. The middle and the lower-order failed to contribute and with the captain not batting, UP’s second innings was wrapped up for 225 on the final day of the game.
