Ranji Trophy: Haryana qualify for knockout stage after gap of five years

Haryana secured a comfortable 119-run victory over Tripura on the third day of their Ranji Trophy match on Friday at the Eden Gardens, to qualify for the knockout stage after a gap of five years.

Resuming on 186 for 4, Haryana added 75 runs to declare at 261 for nine. Chasing a target of 315 runs to win, Tripura lost their way early as they lost two wickets for just 10 runs. Their middle-order batsmen did not fair any better as Haryana pacers Mohit Sharma, Joginder Sharma and Sanjay Pahal scalped wickets at regular intervals.

At one point Haryana were left reeling at 65 for 7. Manisankar Murasingh and Gurinder Singh pieced together an eighth-wicket partnership of 119 runs to frustrate Haryana.
Pahal though broke the stand with a scalp of Gurinder. Haryana wrapped up the tail the next two overs to seal victory and advanced to the knockout stage.

Karnataka end Maharashtra’s campaign

Karnataka romped to a comfortable 10-wicket win knock Maharashtra out of quarterfinal contention. The win saw them collect seven points and move to the top of Group B.

Resuming on 313 for 9, Karnataka added 32 runs to their overnight score.
Trailing by 182, Maharashtra got off on the back foot losing their most of their top-order cheaply. Senior batsman Kedar Jadhav provided the only resistence on the day as he made 85 off 59 deliveries. His effort though did not amount too much as wickets kept falling at the other end.

Maharashtra were bowled out for 218 with David Mathias, who came into the match on day two as a replacement for Manish Pandey, bagged three wickets.

Chasing 37 runs for victory, Karnataka openers Mir Kaunan Abbas and R Samarth scored the runs without breaking much sweat.

Kaushik Gandhi puts Tamil Nadu in command

Kaushik Gandhi’s unbeaten 150 took Tamil Nadu a step closer towards qualification. Gandhi’s effort saw the Southern outfit post a commanding 397 for 4 at stumps with a lead of 90 runs. Gandhi was well supported by Baba Indrajith who made 66.

Gandhi’s solid innings saw him face 341 balls smashing 20 boundaries. Gujarat were bowled out for 307 in their first innings.

Madhya Pradesh still alive in pursuit of qualification

Madhya Pradesh put on a solid fight against Bengal in their effort to push for an outright win needed to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Chasing Bengal’s imposing first innings total of 475 for nine declared, Madhya Pradesh rode on half centuries from Rajat Patidar (86), Ankit Sharma (90 not out) and Ishwar Pandey (63).

Madhya Pradesh ended the day on 363 for 8 trailing Bengal by 112 runs. At one stage MP were placed precariously on 166 for 7. However, Sharma and Pandey dug them out to a stronger position.

Punjab add to Mumbai’s misery

A four-wicket haul by Manpreet Gony helped Punjab enforce the follow-on against Mumbai. Punjab who are seeking an outright win, looked well on course after Mumbai failed to produce a better show after a dismal day two.

Gony struck early with two wickets to leave Mumbai reeling at 37 for five. A 101-run sixth-wicket stand between Sufiyan Shaikh (67) and Shardul Thakur (70), gave Mumbai some respite. Punjab though did not let Mumbai’s resistance persist and wrapped up the Mumbai innings for 185.

Mumbai made 94 for 2 at stumps with Shreyas Iyer batting on 59.

Brief scores

• Bengal 475/9 decl. (Shreevats Goswami 225*, Abhimanyu Easwaran 80; Puneet Datey 4/105) lead Madhya Pradesh 363/8 (Ankit Sharma 90*, Rajat Patidar 86; Sayan Ghosh 4/86) by 112 runs. 
• Team Rajasthan 140 & 163 (Amitkumar Gautam 51, Siddharth Dobal 34; Lalit Yadav 6/60, Shrikant Wagh 2-32) lead Vidarbha 116 (Siddesh Wath 50, Sanjay Ramaswamy 25; Tanveer-ul-Haq 6/21, Pankaj Singh 3/52) by 187 runs.
• Maharashtra 163 & 218 (Kedar Jadhav 85; David Matias 3/37) lost to Karnataka 345 (Pavan Deshpande 70, R Samarth 64; Anupam Sanklecha 3/78) & 39/0 by 10 wickets.
• Saurashtra 92 & 420 (KM Parmar 149, Aarpit Vasavada 89; Navdeep Saini 3/122) lead Delhi 237 & 102/4 (Gautam Gambhir 34; Shauriya Sanandia 3/83) by 173 runs.
• Haryana 231 & 261/9 decl. (Nitin Saini 104; Bunti Roy 4/42) beat Tripura 178 & 195 (Gurinder Singh 62, Manisankar Murasingh 60; Sanjay Pahal 3/47) by 119 runs.
• Goa 380 & 99/2 (Sumiran Amonkar 54*; Kanwar Abhinay 1/9) trail Himachal Pradesh 528 (Prashant Chopra 194, Sumeet Verma 160; Rituraj Singh 3/89) by 49 runs.
• Chhattisgarh 370 & 101/1 (Manoj Singh 45*; Parvez Rasool 1-24) lead Jammu & Kashmir 242 (Parvez Rasool 92; Sumit Ruikar 5/59) by 229 runs.
• Gujarat 307 (Panchal 113, Axar Patel 44; T Natarajan 3-86) trail Tamil Nadu 397/4 (Kaushik Gandhi 150*, Abhinav Mukund 99; Rush Kalaria 2-47) by 90 runs.
• Services 322 (Anshul Gupta 105, Rahul Singh 71; Athif Bin Ashraf 4/60) lead Kerala 271/5 (Sachin Baby 112*, Jalaj Saxena 84; Irfan Khan 3/73) by 51 runs.
• Andhra 190 & 171/6 decl. (Hanuma Vihari 57; Mohammed Siraj 4/52) lead Hyderabad 143 & 13/1 by 206 runs.
• Punjab 468 lead Mumbai 185 (Shardul Thakur 70; Manpreet Gony 4/39) & 94/2 (Shreyas Iyer 59*; Siddarth Kaul 1/9) by 189 runs.
• Uttar Pradesh 481 & 117/0 (Almas Shaukat 61*, Shivam Chaudhary 55*) lead Baroda 458 (Kedar Devdhar,157, Swapnil Singh 95; Imtiaz Ahmed 4/126) by 140 runs.