Punjab pummeled Delhi by 10 wickets for their first win of the Ranji Trophy season on Friday while handing the hosts their first Ranji Trophy loss at home in five years. Off-spinner Writtick Chatterjee bowled Bengal back into contention against Tamil Nadu.
Hosts Mumbai eked out a crucial 16-run first innings lead after they bundled out Gujarat for 281 in their Elite Group A game.
Punjab decimate Delhi
With Punjab controlling the game from day one, it was only a matter of time before they scored an outright win, fetching seven points. Delhi, who were gasping at 106 for six in their second innings and trailing Punjab by 69 runs at stumps on day two, ended up with 179 courtesy Pulkit Narang (31) and Pulkit Sood (25).
Punjab needed just five runs for a big win and and they knocked it off in 2.1 overs with Jiwanjot Sharma and Abhishek Sharma in the middle.
With the emphatic win, Punjab have revived their Ranji campaign after having collected just two points from the previous two games.
On the other hand, Delhi’s troubles have increased with their first loss of the season. They had conceded the first-innings lead against Hyderabad and could not dismiss Himachal Pradesh in their opener for an outright win. Punjab had made 282 in the first innings, thanks to a captain’s knock by Mandeep Singh (90). Yuvraj Singh, playing his first game of the season, made 24 off 88 balls.
Mumbai lead as the Dubey show continues
Mumbai had posted 297 in their first innings at the Wankhede Stadium. Gujarat resumed the penultimate day of the four-day match on 232/8 with wicket-keeper Dhurv Raval unbeaten on 60.
Raval added 39 runs to his tally, but missed out on a deserving hundred after he fell on 99 and was the last man to be dismissed. Raval briefly raised hopes of the visitors taking the first innings lead, but it all ended when he was caught by wicket-keeper Aditya Tare off Shivam Dubey.
For Mumbai, Shivam Dubey (3/50), Dhawal Kulkarni (3/71) and Royston Dias (3/74) shone with the ball. However, Mumbai had a disastrous start in their second essay as Gujarat bowlers lead by medium pacer Chintan Gaja (4/50) wreaked havoc.
At one stage, Mumbai were reeling at 66/6 as Akhil Herwadkar (10), Jay Bista (0), Siddesh Lad (17), Surya Kumar Yadav (1), Arman Jaffer (5) and Dhawal Kulkarni (6) fell in quick succession. But then Aditya Tare (59) used his experience as he and first innings centurion Shivam Dubey (40*) rebuild the innings.
Bengal fight back
Trailing by 74 runs in the first innings, Chatterjee’s efforts (5/22) helped Bengal dismiss Tamil Nadu for 141 in 62.5 overs, leaving the visitors a target of 216 to secure its first win of the season.
Chatterjee removed the first innings centurion Baba Aparajith (21) and N Jagadeesan (38) while fellow spinner Pradipta Pramanik dismissed captain B Indrajith (4).
Some late order resistance by J Kousik (10) and M Mohammed (23*) helped the home team stretch the lead.
Bengal began the chase cautiously with left-handed opener Abhishek Kumar Raman, who made 98 in the first knock and Kousik Ghosh (13) seeing off the early threat from T Natarajan and Mohammed. Rahil Shah struck the first blow, getting Ghosh caught by Indrajith.
Abhishek Raman and captain Manoj Tiwari (13 batting) added 35 runs before the former fell to Kousik for 53. Bengal requires 129 more runs on the final day Saturday to secure a much-neeed win.
....more to follow
(With inputs from PTI)
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