Gujarat virtually pushed a lacklustre Delhi out of the knockout race after grabbing three points from their group A Ranji Trophy match, which ended in a draw in New Delhi on Friday. On the basis of their 42-run first innings lead, Gujarat grabbed three points from the contest to take their tally to 29 from seven outings. They now sit atop the cross pool (group A and B) standings.
The top five teams in the cross pool will qualify for the quarter-finals. Top two from Group C and the best side in the Plate Group will complete the line-up. Delhi are now left with a home game against Rajasthan, from February 12, and they have to get seven points (including bonus) to have any chance left.
But even a total of 25 points may not suffice as Gujarat (29), Andhra (27), Bengal (26), Saurashtra (25) and Karnataka (25) are already in top five with a game left.
Big win for Maharashtra
Maharashtra defeated Odisha comprehensively by 10 wickets on the fourth and final day in New Delhi. However, the win may not help Maharashtra’s cause as it lies in fifth spot with 28 points behind Jammu & Kashmir (39), Odisha (35), Services (33) and Haryana (30). Only the top two teams from the group will advance to the knockout stages.
Maharashtra, which had declared at a mammoth 543/5 in reply to Odisha’s first innings score of 293, dismissed the visitors for 289 in the second essay, setting themselves a target of 40 runs which they knocked off in 11 overs.
Resuming at the overnight score of 24/0, Odisha were bowled out for 289 despite a fighting ton by Govinda Poddar (118, 187 balls, 14 fours, 2 sixes).
Left-arm medium-pacer Mukesh Choudhary was the best bowler for Maharashtra, returning with figures of 4/99 while medium-pacer Ashay Palkar and left-arm spinner Satyajeet Bachhav were among wickets too.
The right-handed Poddar held the Odisha innings together as no other batsmen barring opener Anurag Sarangi (73, 152 balls, 13 fours) could build on the starts. Sarangi and Poddar put on 94 runs for the third wicket and kept the Maharashtra bowlers at bay for nearly 28 overs.
After the exit of Sarangi, who was dismissed by Choudhary, Poddar and Biplab Samantray (19) added 40 runs for the fourth wicket.
Brief scores:
In Delhi: Delhi 293 and 333/8 declared (Himmat Singh 70). Gujarat 335 and 128/2 (Manprit Juneja 51 no).
Bengal 123 and (target 320) 320/8 (Koushik Ghosh 64, Abhimanyu Easwaran 62, Shahbaz Ahmed 55). Bengal won by 2 wkts. Points: Bengal 6. Rajasthan 0.
In Nagpur: Vidarbha 326. Kerala 191/3.
Odisha 293 (Shantanu Mishra 84, Rajesh Dhuper 110*, Anurag Sarangi 41; A Palkar 4/81) and 289 (Govinda Poddar 118, Anurag Sarangi 73, Mukhesh Choudhary 4/99) lost to Maharashtra 543/5 (Ankit Bawane 204*, Ruturaj Gaikwad 129, NS Shaikh 100; Suryakant Pradhan 2/92) and 40/0. Points: Maharashtra: 7, Odisha: 0.
At Jamshedpur: Chhattisgarh 559 (Harpreet Singh Bhatia 221, Ajay Mandal 121*, Jiwanjot Singh 52; Sahil Raj 3/83, Sonu Kumar Singh 3/158) drew Jharkhand 242 (Virat Singh 140; Veer Pratap Singh 3/46, Puneet Datey 3/50) and 51/0 (Arnav Sinha 31 batting). Points: Chhattisgarh: 3, Jharkhand: 1.
More to follow...
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