Ranji: Bengal close in on innings win over Haryana

Pacer Akash Deep continued to shine with the ball, picking up three scalps in the second innings to add to his five-wicket haul in the first essay as Bengal eye an innings victory over Haryana in a Ranji Trophy Group A match in Rohtak on Thursday.

At stumps on the third day, Haryana were struggling at 177 for 7, requiring 79 more runs to make Bengal bat again.

Akash Deep (3/37) removed Himanshu Rana (16), RP Sharma (1) and skipper Harshal Patel (1) to compound Haryana's misery after fellow pacers Mukesh Kumar (2/53) and Ishan Porel (2/36) had done the early damage with the scalps of C K Bishnoi (55) and Yuvraj Singh (78 off 187 balls, 7x4s, 1x6).

Asked to follow-on after conceding a 256-run lead, Haryana began the second innings well with openers Bishnoi and Yuvraj adding 129 runs for the first wicket. The duo looked in control and appeared to be taking the home team to safety before Porel struck the first blow, dismissing Bishnoi.

Three balls later, Porel had Ankit Kumar trapped LBW for a duck.

Yuvraj and Himanshu Rana (16) added 27 runs for the third wicket before Akash Deep got into the act by sending back the latter.

Haryana subsequently lost four wickets for 15 runs after Yuvraj was scalped by Mukesh Kumar to find themselves in trouble.

Brief Scores:

At Rohtak: Bengal 419 all out in 113.4 overs (Anustup Majumdar 145, Abhimanyu Easwaran 57; Harshal Patel 4/80) vs Haryana 163 all out in 52 overs (Sumit Kumar 70 not out; Akash Deep 5/61, Ishan Porel 2/29) and 177 for 7 in 69 overs (Yuvraj Singh 78, C K Bishnoi 55; Akash Deep 3/37). Haryana trails by 79 runs.

At Meerut: Odisha 226 all out in 87 overs (Shantanu Mishra 109, Rajesh Dhuper 62; Kunal Yadav 5/47) and 152 for 1 in 41 overs (Subhransu Senapati 91 batting, Anurag Sarangi 52 batting) vs Uttar Pradesh 362 all out in 100.3 overs (Priyam Garg 122, Rinku Singh 108, Dhruv Jurel 44; Suryakant Pradhan 4/76). Odisha lead by 16 runs.

At Dehradun: Baroda 86 all out and 336 for 7 in 102 overs (Shashank Rawat 89, Vishnu Solanki 79, Priyanshu Moliya 36, N A Rathva 35 batting; Swapnil K Singh 3/80) vs Uttarakhand 199 all out in 77.4 overs (Swapnil Singh 63, Akhil Rawat 45; Ninad Rathva 4/19, Babashafi Pathan 2/44). Baroda leads by 223 runs.

At Nadaun: Himachal Pradesh 346 all out in 104.5 overs (Ankit Kalsi 160, Mayank Dagar 58;  Imliwati Lemtur 5/74) and 263 for 3 declared in 46 overs (Prashant Chopra 115, Raghav Dhawan 46) vs Nagaland 233 all out in 79.5 overs (Rongsen Jonathan 96, Hokaito Zhimomi 41; Vinay Galetiya 6/62) and 31 for 4 in 17 overs. Nagaland needs 346 runs to win.

Divij's five-for puts Delhi in command against Mumbai

New Delhi: Delhi, after getting brickbats during the early rounds of the Ranji Trophy season, are showing huge signs of improvement, with the hosts now in prime position to defeat powerhouse Mumbai in their Group B match here on Thursday.

At stumps on day three of the Ranji Trophy game at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here, Delhi had reduced Mumbai to 168 for 9 in the second innings, with young right-arm quick Divij Mehra -- playing only his second first-class game -- taking a five-wicket haul to leave the visitors, led by Ajinkya Rahane, in tatters.

Mumbai have a lead of just 92 runs and, given their sorry state, Delhi could be left to chase a score of 100 or thereabout to eke out their first win of the season on Friday.

Delhi, who had taken the first-innings lead on Wednesday, closing the day at 316 for 7 in reply to Mumbai's 293, further cemented their position on Thursday by adding 53 runs to their overnight total. Their innings culminated at 369.

Pranshu Vijayran scored a quick 37 as Delhi took charge with a handy 76-run lead.

Divij then struck immediately, wiping out the top order comprising of Prithvi Shaw (16), Musheer Khan (5), Armaan Jaffer (10) and first-innings centurion Sarfaraz Khan (0) to reduce Mumbai to 34/4 in the 10th over.

Skipper Rahane did try to rebuild the innings but his dismissal at 51 by seamer Vijayran put Mumbai in a huge spot of bother.

Tail-enders Royston Dias (0 not out) and Tanush Kotian (48 not out) were at the crease at stumps on day three.

For Delhi, who are currently placed seventh in Group B with five points as against Mumbai, who are second on 23 points, it is redemption time after their campaign went into a downward spiral the day the domestic season started.

The hosts, who are out of contention for a quarterfinal berth, could lift the gloom somewhat by inflicting a crushing defeat on the record 41-time Ranji champions on Friday.

Brief scores:

At Delhi: Mumbai 293 and 168 for 9 in 59 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 51, Shams Mulani 30, Tanush Kotian batting 48; Divij Mehra 5/29, Pranshu Vijayran 2/40) vs Delhi 369 in 101.1 overs (Hrithik Shokeen 45, Vaibhav Rawal 114, Himmat Singh 85, Pranshu Vijayran 37; Tushar Deshpande 4/111, Shams Mulani 3/90).

At Rajkot: Andhra 415 and 164 for 7 decl in 45 overs (Abhishek Reddy 33, Hanuma Vihari 37, Karan Shinde 50 n.o.; Jaydev Unadkat 2/17) vs Saurashtra 237 in 63.2 overs (Sheldon Jackson 64, Arpit Vasavada 40, Samarth Vyas 51; Lalith Mohan 5/71) and 10 for 1 in 2 overs.

At Chennai: Tamil Nadu 540 vs Assam 266 in 100.2 overs (Riyan Parag 48, Swarupam Purkayastha 74; Ajith Ram 4/68, R. Sai Kishore 3/67) and (f/o) 66 for no loss in 34 overs (Rahul Hazarika batting 36).

At Pune: Maharashtra 385 and 30 for 1 in 2.5 overs (Taranjitsingh Dhillon 30 n.o.) beat Hyderabad 192 and (f/o) 219 in 53.1 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 43, Chandan Sahani 59; Rajvardhan Hangargekar 3/66, Satyajeet Bachhav 3/32) by nine wickets.

Mayank Agarwal slams double ton, helps Karnataka grab lead vs Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: India Test discard Mayank Agarwal's unbeaten double century helped Karnataka secure the all-important first innings lead against Kerala on the third day of the Ranji Trophy Group C match here on Thursday.

Resuming at the overnight score of 137 for 2, Karnataka captain Agarwal (208 off 360 balls, 17x4s, 5x6s) moved to his ton from 87 in quick time and took control of the proceedings, scoring the bulk of the runs.

In the company of S J Nikin Jose (54), the stylish Agarwal kept the scoreboard ticking. The two put on 151 runs to keep the team in the hunt.

Jose fell to left-arm spinner Akshay Chandran (1/32) and Manish Pandey (0), one of the team's star batters, was dismissed for a first ball duck to off-spinner Jalaj Saxena (2/124) as Karnataka appeared to stutter.

Agarwal, however, found an able partner in Shreyas Gopal (48 off 125 balls, 4x4s), and their fifth-wicket stand of 93 from 165 balls, put Karnataka back in the hunt.

Gopal fell at 336 with the visiting team six runs short of Kerala's score.

Wicket-keeper-batter B R Sharath (47 batting), who joined Agarwal in the middle, put on 42 runs for the sixth wicket to make sure Karnataka got past their opponent's score.             

Off-spinner Vaishakh Chandran (2/87) struck a big blow for Kerala by removing Agarwal, who was looking in ominous form and appeared set for a mammoth score.

Sharath and Shubhang Hegde (8 batting) ensured that there was no further damage as Karnataka ended the day at 410 for 6, a lead of 68 runs.

Brief scores:

At Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala 342 all out in 130.1 overs (Sachin Baby 141, Jalaj Saxena 57, Vathsal Govind 46; V Koushik 6/54) vs Karnataka 410 for 6 in 137 overs (Mayank Agarwal 208, S J Nikin Jose 54, Shreyas Gopal 48, B R Sharath 47 batting).

At Puducherry: Pondicherry 231 all out in 91.4 overs (K B Arun Karthick 68, Paras K Dogra 68, Aravind K 31; Ashish Kumar 3/34, Anukul Roy 3/78) and 89 for 5 in 38 overs (Anukul Roy 3/39) vs Jharkhand 412 all out in 133.2 overs (Virat Singh 124, Saurabh Tiwary 116, Kumar Suraj 45; Sagar P Udeshi 8/118).

At New Delhi: Services 175 all out in 59.2 overs (Pulkit Nagar 52, L S Kumar 32; Vijesh Prabhudesai 3/39) and 139 for 2 in 40 overs (Ravi Chauhan 68 batting, S G Rohila 52) vs Goa 483 for 9 declared in 155.2 overs (KD Eknath 156 not out, Manthan Khutkar 82, Darshan Misal 59, Mohit Redkar 56; Pulkit Narang 4/161, M S Rathee 3/94).

At Jodhpur: Rajasthan 360 all out in 93 overs (Samarpit Joshi 123) and 268 for 3 declared in 48 overs (Mahipal Lomror 130, Aditya Garhwal 73) vs Chhattisgarh 199 all out in 77.3 overs (Ajay Mandal 48, Vasudev Bareth 42; Aniket Choudhary 4/25, MJ Suthar 4/46) and 111 for 4 in 32 overs (AG Tiwary 51; MJ Suthar 3/43).

Vidarbha defend lowest score in first-class cricket in India, shoot out Gujarat for 54

Nagpur: Left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate grabbed a match haul of 11 wickets as Vidarbha pipped Gujarat by 18 runs, defending 73 on the third day morning in a Ranji Trophy Group D match at Jamtha here on Thursday.

With this Vidarbha defended the lowest score -- 73 -- successfully in first-class cricket in India, bettering Bihar's 78 against Delhi in Jamshedpur way back in the 1948-49 season.

At a venue where India's opening Test against Australia is slated to be played in less than a month's time, the match witnessed 15 wickets tumbling on day one, followed by 16 on the next day.

The Ranji Trophy game was played on a side pitch, while the Test would be played on one of the centre strips.

Chasing a paltry 73, Gujarat resumed their second innings on six for one but were shot out for 54 runs inside 31 overs on the third day morning with Sarwate once again running through their line-up with stunning figures of 15.3-6-17-6 to complement his first innings' 5/64.

Sarwate, who returned with a career-best match haul of 11/81, was complemented well by another left-arm spinner in Harsh Dubey (9-1-11-3).

Siddharth Desai, who batted on No. 3, was the only Gujarat batter to reach a double-digit score (18) and was dismissed by a run-out.

Electing to bat, Vidarbha's first innings folded for 74 in 30.3 overs at the stroke of lunch on day one, with the Gujarat pace duo of Chintan Gaja and Tejas Patel grabbing five wickets each.

Gujarat scored 256 in their first innings, taking a lead of 182 runs.

Vidarbha put up a strong fight in their second essay with Jitesh Sharma leading the show with a 53-ball 69, while no. 9 batter Nachiket Bhute also contributed a significant 42 off 66 balls.

Gujarat's Siddharth Desai, left-arm orthodox spinner, was their wrecker-in-chief as he returned with 6/74 to bundle out Vidarbha for 254 and a win seemed formality for the visitors with a small target of 73.

But Sarwate had other ideas as Gujarat batters fell like nine pins on an eventful third day morning as Vidarbha bagged six points from the match to move to joint-second place with Punjab.

Brief Scores:

At Nagpur: Vidarbha 74 and 254. Gujarat 256 and 54; 33.3 overs (Siddharth Desai 18; Aditya Sarwate 6/17, Harsh Dubey 3/11). Vidarbha won by 18 runs. Points: Vidarbha 6, Gujarat 0.

At Mohali: Punjab 443. Madhya Pradesh 244; 78.4 overs (Yash Dubey 50, Shubham Sharma 50, Harsh Gawli 53; Siddarth Kaul 4/55) and following on 77; 27.5 overs (Kumar Kartikeya 21 not out; Arshdeep Singh 4/30, Mayank Markande 3/19, Kaul 2/11). Punjab won by an innings and 122 runs. Points: Punjab 7, MP 0.

At Chandigarh: Railways 386. Chandigarh 485/8; 149 overs (Manan Vohra 126, Gaurav Puri 102 batting, Kunal Mahajan 83, Gurinder Singh 42; Himanshu Sangwan 3/64, Sagar Jadhav 2/71). Chandigarh lead by 99 runs.

At Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir 446/6 declared; 156 overs (Abhinav Puri 121, Shubham Khajuria 53, Vivrant Sharma 55, Ian Chauhan 61, Abdul Samad 58, Musaif Ajaz 43 not out; S S Ghosh 3/106). Tripura 76/4; 37 overs (Bikram Das 39 batting, Subham Ghosh 23 batting; Abid Mushtaq 3/13). Tripura trail by 370 runs.