Karnataka, Saurashtra and Gujarat registered their third successive victories of the Ranji Trophy 2017-18 season.
While Karnataka continue to occupy the pole position in Group A with a thumping win over Maharashtra, Delhi have climbed to No 2 with a thrilling win over UP after conceding the first innings lead. Hyderabad beat Railways to register their first outright win of the season.
Saurashtra and Gujarat continue to occupy the first two places in the Group B table after remaining unbeaten in the ongoing season. Kerala beat J &K and are placed in the top half of the group’s points table.
Andhra beat MP and replaced them at the top of the Group C table while MP now occupy the second position. Mumbai, who registered their first outright win of the season also keep themselves in the reckoning for a place in the knock-outs. Baroda gained the first innings lead against Tripura and both teams continue to be in the lower half of the table.
In Group D, Punjab claimed the top spot in the points table with a thumping win over Chhattisgarh. Vidarbha beat Services to stay in reckoning for a place in the knock-outs while Bengal took first innings lead against Himachal in a drawn game.
Here are the highlights of Day 4 in the fourth round:
Group ARailways vs Hyderabad: Hyderabad beat Railways by ten wickets to open their account in the wins column.
Following on, Railways resumed their second innings on 13 without loss on the last day of the match. The hosts were trailing by 215 runs when they came out to bat on Day 4. Shivakant Shukla was the first one to return to the pavilion; bowled by Mehdi Hasan leaving the side on 54 for one. The Hyderabad bowlers then continued to take wickets at regular intervals even as the hosts toiled to keep the innings in the reckoning. The left-arm spinner claimed four wickets while Ravi Kiran and T Ravi Teja picked two wickets each. Pragyan Ojha and K Rohit Rayudu took a wicket apiece to bowl Railways out earlier in the afternoon. Debutant Manish Rao’s unbeaten 128-ball 85 helped the team to 250 before being bowled out.
Tanmay Agarwal and Akshath Reddy then chased down the 23-run target in 5.2 overs.
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http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/46Delhi vs Uttar Pradesh: In a hard-fought game at the Palam ground, Delhi triumphed over UP by four wickets and gained six points from the match. After conceding a first innings lead, Delhi chased down the 252-run target and took take their points tally to 16 and remain in the top half of the points table in the mid-phase of the tournament.
Earlier, after resuming on 224 for seven, UP were bowled out for 229 in the morning. Akshdeep Nath was sent back on his overnight score of 110 by Navdeep Amarjeet Saini. The bowler also claimed the last two wickets to wrap-up the innings and finished with a four-for.
Chasing a stiff target, Delhi lost Gaumtam Gambhir with just six runs on the board. 53 runs later Israr Azim accounted for Dhruv Shorey. Unmukt Chand then ploughed on with Nitish Rana and the two had taken the side to 130 when the opener was sent back by Ankit Rajpoot for 49. After building a 52-run partnership with Milind, Nitish Rana (67) too returned to the dressing room. Milind then held one end up even as the UP bowlers continued to strike at the other. Mohammed Saif, who had sent Rana back also accounted for Rishabh Pant leaving the hosts on 224 for five. Seven runs later Manan Sharma was sent back by Rajpoot.
Milind (48* off 109) and Saini (20* off 12) then joined forces to take Delhi to a win with a 25-run unbroken partnership.
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http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/47Maharashtra vs Karnataka: Karnataka won by an innings and 136 runs.
After Maharashtra resumed on 135 for four, Abhimanyu Mithun claimed three wickets upfront to leave the hosts on 178 for seven. Facing an uphill task, R Motwani looked to keep the innings afloat, but 23 runs later, Ronit More accounted for N Dhumal. And couple of overs later, Samad Fallah was trapped lbw by Gowtham K while Karun Nair followed up with the wicket of P Dadhe to wrap-up the Maharashtra innings for 247.
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http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/48Group B
J & K vs Kerala: With a five-for, debutant Akshay KC bowled Kerala to a 158-run win over J & K.
Chasing 238, J & K resumed their innings on 56 for seven and were skittled out for 79 by the spinner. Akshay picked the last three wickets to complete his maiden five-for and finish the game with nine wickets in the bag (4/37 and 5/21).
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http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/43Gujarat vs Haryana: Piyush Chawla and S Desai claimed five wickets each to bowl Gujarat to a 238-run win over Haryana.
Chasing 361 runs, Haryana were bundled out for 121 after resuming the innings on 94 for seven on the last morning. After the visitors had added 11 runs to the overnight score, Desai claimed H Patel to leave the visitors on 105 for eight. Chawla then wrapped up the innings with the wickets of S Pahal and A Sandhu.
Chawla finished with nine wickets from the match while Desai took picked eight in the game.
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http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/44Saurashtra vs Jharkhand: With a six wicket win over Jharkhand Saurashtra further strengthened their position in the Group B points table.
Following on, Jharkhand resumed their innings on 139 for one on the fourth morning. Sumit Kumar’s 147-ball 108 and opener Mohammed Nazim Siddique’s 75-ball 99 helped the side post put up a better display in the second innings. However, the Saurashtra attack kept the rest of the lineup on a tight leash to bowl visitors out for 341. Dharmendrasinh Jadeja claimed four wickets while Ravindra Jadeja and Jaydev Unadkat picked two wickets each. V Jivarajani and Chirag Jani took a wicket apiece to set up the game.
However, chasing the 59-run target, Saurashtra lost four wickets. Cheteshwar Pujara opened the innings with Snell Patel and the latter was bowled in the first over by Ashish Kumar. Varun Aaron then claimed the Saurashtra skipper to leave the hosts on 12 for two. 18 runs later, Robin Uthappa was sent back by Ashish while Kaushal Singh accounted for Sheldon Jackson to leave the side on 45 for four. Jani and Ravindra Jadeja then took the team to the finish line.
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http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/45
Group C
Baroda vs Tripura: Although Baroda gained three points on the basis of their first innings lead against Tripura, they will continue to remain in the lower half of the team’s points table.
SK Patel, who had taken Tripura to stumps on Day 3 at 327 for four, worked to carry the innings forward on the fourth day. After taking the team past the 400-run mark, he was sent back by Swapnil Singh for 158 leaving the side on 402 for seven. Atit Sheth, S Mangalorkar, R Vaghela and Swapnil claimed two wickets each while Abhijit Karmabelkar and Vishnu Solanki picked a wicket each as they bowled Tripura out for 436 and helped seize a first innings lead.
When the match was called off in a draw, Baroda were 85 for six in their second innings. A Sarkar claimed 5/18.
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http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/37Andhra vs Madhya Pradesh: Andhra claimed six points with an eight-wicket win over Madhya Pradesh. While Andhra registered their first outright win of the season, MP suffered their first loss.
After resuming on 67 for five, MP were bowled out for 119 by the Ayyappa Bandaru-led (5/34) attack. Bhargav Bhatt claimed Saransh Jain to give the first breakthrough of the day leaving the visitors on 89 for six. Prithvi Raj Yarra and Bandaru then picked two each to bundle the opposition out and set-up the game for the home team.
Chasing the 65-run target, Andhra lost both their openers, but Hanuma Vihari took the team to the paltry target in 13.1 overs.
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http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/38Odisha vs Mumbai: Pacers bowled Mumbai to their first outright win of the season and claimed six points from the match. The Aditya Tare-led team cantered to a 120-run win over Odisha on the last day of the game.
Chasing a formidable 413-run target, Odisha were wobbling on 93 for four when they resumed the uphill task in the morning. Skipper Govind Podder was the first to be sent back with 83 runs added to the overnight score. Abhishek Nayar castled the top-order batsman for 87 while Akash Parker followed up with the wicket of Shantanu Mishra 20 runs later. Biplab Samantaray then stitched a 45-run stand with Saurabh Rawat in an effort to keep the innings in the fray until Nayar disrupted his stumps. Dhawal Kulkarni then claimed two of the last three wickets while Shardul Thakur picked one to bowl the hosts out for 292.
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http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/42Group DBengal vs Himachal: Bengal gained three points on the basis of their first innings lead and took their points tally to 13 while Himachal who received one point will also take their points tally to 13.
Following on Himachal resumed their innings on 207 for two and were bowled out for 353 by the Mohammed Shami-led attack. Mohammed Shami claimed five while Ashoke Dinda picked three wickets to wrap-up the HP innings. PS Khanduri’s 95 at the top of the order and half-centuries by N Gangta and Rishi Dhawan helped HP make a match off it and set the hosts a 141-run target.
Looking to chase down the target and add valuable points, Bengal opened the innings with A Raman and Wriddhiman Saha. However, Dhawan struck vital blows to keep the hosts on their toes. He claimed Raman in the first over and followed up with the wickets of Sudip Chatterjee, Manoj Tiwary and Shreevats Goswami to leave Bengal on 43 for four. Saha was batting with A Eswaran when the match ended in a draw.
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http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/39Chhattisgarh vs Punjab: Punjab added seven points to their account with an innings and a 118-run win over Chhattisgarh in Raipur.
Chhattisgarh were trailing by 244 runs with six wickets in hand when play resumed on the fourth day. With ten runs added to the overnight total, Siddharth Chandrakar was sent back by Barinder Sran leaving the team on 181 for five. With Jatin Saxena, Ashutosh Singh then carried the team to 216 until the former was removed by Sandeep Sharma. In his next over, the medium pacer ended Ashutosh Singh’s (119 off 222balla) resistance trapping him lbw. 74 runs later, Abhishek Sharma bowled Vishal Singh while Vinay Choudhary claimed the last two wickets in the next to bowl the hosts out for 297.
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http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/41Vidarbha vs Services: Akshay Wakhare (5/16) and Karn Sharma (3/42) bowled Vidarbha to a 192-run win over Services in Nagpur.
After resuming their second innings on 111 for two, the hosts declared their innings on 223 for six. A quick-fire 28-ball 48* by Karnewar boosted the hosts total and helped them set Services a 292-run target. Umesh Yadav then set the tone for the innings with the wicket of Ravi Chauhan for a duck. Wakhare and Karn then dismantled the Services lineup, spinning them out for just 99 runs.
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http://www.bcci.tv/ranji-trophy-2017-18/match/40
