Ranji Trophy 2017-18, Round 6 - Day 4 Review

The league stage of the ongoing season of Ranji Trophy and is nearing its end as the teams are looking for outright victories to qualify for the knockouts. The sixth round witnessed the same with only four matches ending in a tame draw. As many as eight matches saw the result going into the favour of one of the two teams. However, the picture is almost clear now in few groups regarding which of the states have made it to the quarter-finals.

Haryana trumped Jammu & Kashmir in a sensational turnaround in Rohtak to win the game by just 18 runs in a low-scoring encounter. Chasing a total of 176 J&K were placed nicely at 130/4 at one stage but collapsed in front of Ajit Chahal only to get bowled out for 157. Chahal bowled beautifully to script a memorable win for his side and returned with the figures of 5/53. Hyderabad survived a scare in a close game against Assam and beat them by four wickets. Ambati Rayudu, the skipper scored a fighting half-century as his side chased down 144 on the final day.

Siddharth Desai scalped a fantastic five-wicket haul for Gujarat as they defeated Rajasthan by an innings and 107 runs. The visitors never threatened the game to take deep after conceding a huge lead of 458 and eventually were bowled out for 331 on the fourth day. Goa collapsed in their second chance with the bat and were bundled out for just 151 against Vidarbha. Akshay Wakhare picked five wickets and ended the game with nine wickets helping his team win the game by an innings and 37 runs.

Saurashtra was surprisingly shot out for just 95 on the last day while chasing a target of 405. Jalaj Saxena wreaked havoc with his bowling and picked 4 wickets. He was well supported by KC Akshay and Sijomon Joseph. Karnataka openers enjoyed their day out in the middle and slammed aggressive centuries after bowling Uttar Pradesh out for 331. The match ended in a draw but the visitors walked away with points on the basis of first innings lead and also a spot in the quarterfinals.

Tamil Nadu failed to win the game against Madhya Pradesh but earned three crucial points as they had taken a lead of 62 runs in the first innings. MP declared their second innings on 351/4 to set up an improbable target of 290 in the final session for Tamil Nadu which led to the match ending in a draw. Similarly, Baroda batsman had a great time in the middle second time around as bowling out Odisha for 445 in reply to their 503. Deepak Hooda and Aditya Waghmode slammed centuries for fun on a flat wicket which didn’t help the bowlers throughout.

Mumbai couldn’t bundle out Andhra in 80 overs in order to claim to their spot in the knockouts. They scored some quick runs in the first hour of the final morning and declared on 279/6. But Andhra played sensibly to ensure they didn’t lose and ended the day on 219/5 after 81 overs. Karsh Kothari picked three wickets for Mumbai but other bowlers failed to breach the defences of Andhra batsmen.

Group C is interestingly poised now with Mumbai having one extra game in their kitty. Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Madhya Pradesh and Mumbai are fighting out hard for the top two places in the group.

Brief Scores

Assam v Hyderabad, Group A

Hyderabad 326/10 & 144/6 (A Rayudu 52*; A Das 2/21)

Assam  136/10 & 331/10 (A Sinha 122; S Tyagi 3/34)

Result: Hyderabad won by 4 wickets

(Hyderabad 6 points; Assam 0 points)

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Karnataka v Uttar Pradesh, Group A

Karnataka  655/10 & 262/0 (R Samarth 126*, M Agarwal 133*)

Uttar Pradesh 331/10 (U Sharma 89, R Singh 73; S Gopal 3/63)

Result: Draw

(Karnataka 3 points; Uttar Pradesh 1 point)

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Delhi v Maharashtra, Group A

Delhi 419/10 (Nitish Rana 174, Rishabh Pant 99; Chirag Khurana 3/106)

Maharashtra 99/10 & 259/10 (R Tripathi 106; N Saini 4/57, V Mishra 4/90)

Result: Delhi won by an innings and 61 runs

(Delhi 7 points; Maharashtra 0 points)

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Gujarat v Rajasthan, Group B

Rajasthan 153/10 & 341/10 (R Bist 81, M Lomror 60; S Desai 5/129)

Gujarat 601/4decl (Priyank Panchal 152, Parthiv Patel 173*)

Result: Gujarat won by an innings and 117 runs

(Gujarat 7 points; Rajasthan 0 points)

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Kerala v Saurashtra, Group B

Kerala 225 & 411/6 decl (S Samson 175)

Saurashtra 232/10 & 95/10 (J Saxena 4/29)

Result: Kerala won by 309 runs

(Kerala 6 points; Saurashtra 0 points)

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Jammu Kashmir v Haryana, Group B

Haryana 184/10 & 167/10 (R Dayal 6/44)

Jammu & Kashmir 176/10 & 157/10 (O Shah 52*; A Chahal 5/53)

Result: Haryana won by 18 runs

(Haryana: 6 points; J&K 0 points)

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Tamil Nadu v Madhya Pradesh, Group C

Madhya Pradesh  264/10 & 351/4decl (H Singh 100*; K Vignesh 3/42)

Tamil Nadu  326/10 (N Jagadeesan 101, Yo Mahesh 103*; Puneet Datey 3/55) & 79/1

Result: Draw

(Madhya Pradesh 1 point; Tamil Nadu 3 points)

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Baroda v Odisha, Group C

Baroda 503/10 & 259/1 (A Waghmode 101*, D Hooda 100*)

Odisha 445/10 (S Senapati 173; S Singh 5/50)

Result: Draw

(Baroda 3 points; Odisha 1 point)

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Mumbai v Andhra, Group C

Mumbai  332/10 & 279/6decl (S Iyer 89)

Andhra  215/10 & 219/5 (S Bharat 68; K Kothari 3/55)

Result: Draw

(Mumbai 3 points; Andhra 1 point)

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Goa v Vidarbha, Group D

Goa 239 & 151/10 (S Kauthankar 56; A Wakhare 5/54)

Vidarbha 427/3decl (W Jaffer 158*, G Satish 101)

Result: Vidarbha won by an innings and 37 runs

(Vidarbha 6 points; Goa 0 points)

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Bengal v Punjab, Group D

Punjab 147/10 & 213/10 (S Gill 63; B Amit 3/31)

Bengal 379/9decl (Abhishek Raman 155, Abhimanyu Easwaran 117; Siddarth Kaul 5/118)

Result: Bengal won by an innings and 19 runs

(Punjab 0 points; Bengal 7 points)

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Chattisgarh v Services, Group D

Chattisgarh 130/10 & 133/10 (A Chauhan 43; D Pathania 7/41)

Services 272/10 (Vikas Hathwala 76; Shahnawaz Hussain 5/59)

Result: Services won by an innings and 9 runs

(Chattisgarh 0 points; Services 7 points)

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