Ranji: Karnataka beat Railways, Mumbai-HP tie rained off

A summary of the day's play in the Ranji Trophy matches across the country.

Medium pacer Ronit More (6/32) recorded career-best figures to fashion Karnataka's 10-wicket bonus-point win over Railways in the Ranji Trophy Group B match, in Delhi, on Thursday.

The right-arm medium pacer, who had picked one wicket in the first innings, ran through Railways' batting line-up to bundle the hosts out for a paltry 79 in their second essay.

Starting at the overnight score of 199 for 9, Karnataka were dismissed for 211 in their first innings, thus taking a slender 29-run lead over Railways, who were bowled out for 182.

The Karnataka pacers, including More, Abhimanyu Mithun (3/17) and Prateek Jain (1/28), then bundled out Railways for a meagre 79 in just 30 overs, setting themselves a target of 51 runs for an outright win.

Karnataka openers Rohan Kadan (27 not out) and Devdutt Padikkal (24 not out) overhauled the target in 8.2 overs, as the Karun Nair-led team gained seven points from the match.

Meanwhile in Dharamsala, the Mumbai-Himachal Pradesh match was called off after the fourth and final day's play was also washed out without a ball being bowled.

Play was possible only on the opening day on Monday at the picturesque HPCA Stadium.        

On Thursday too, an overnight spell of rain delayed the start and an inspection was scheduled at 11 am.

However, the match officials were not satisfied with a soggy patch in the outfield and called for one last inspection at 1 pm.

At 1 pm, the match was called off and the teams shared a point each as the first innings of Mumbai remained unfinished.

Young Mumbai batsman Sarfaraz Khan was adjudged player of the match for his unbeaten 226.

The result could dent Mumbai's chances of making it to the knock-outs as the road ahead becomes extremely tough from here on.

 The 41-time Ranji Trophy champions next play in-form Saurashtra in Rajkot from February 4.

Bengal settle for one point after another rain-hit Eden tie

Weather again played spoilsport for Bengal at the Eden Gardens, as the home side had to settle for one point against Delhi in their rain-hit Ranji Trophy Group A match in Kolkata.

Bengal needed three wickets, while Delhi, overnight 217/7, had a stiff task to score 101 runs to secure three points.

But rain and bad light had the final say, as only six overs were possible in two intervals on the last day of the match.

Jonty Sidhu, who was overnight 49 after surviving an lbw on Mukesh Kumar's no-ball, completed his half-century and was 53 not out, while Subodh Bhati was unbeaten on 26 when play was stopped because of bad light after Bengal took the new-ball in the 82nd over.

Heavy rain followed, leaving the outfield wet. The groundsmen tried their best to resume play in the final session but the umpires deemed it unfit and the match was called off at 3.27 pm with Delhi 242/7.

Both teams thus settled for a point each, but the drop in points for Bengal (20 from six matches) in their final home match could be a big blow to their qualification hopes.

Delhi have 17 points from six matches.

The third day's action on Wednesday was also hit by rain and bad light with only 9.3 overs of action possible. All of Bengal's three matches at the Eden Gardens turned out to be jinxed.

In their two previous matches at the venue, Bengal had the advantage against Andhra and Gujarat, but both of them were hit by rain, forcing them to settle for three points each.

Bengal, thereafter, chose to shift base to Kalyani as their home venue against Hyderabad where they secured a bonus-point victory.

With television coverage, Bengal were forced to return to the Eden but the weather gods once again came to haunt the home side.

"We definitely missed to get three points. We were in a strong position. Now we have to win both our next matches to qualify. we will try our best," Manoj Tiwary, who stood in as captain in the absence of Abhimanyu Easwaran, said.

"Both matches at the Eden Gardens resulted in similar fashion. It's all past. We have to look ahead."

Bengal take on Rajasthan and Punjab in their last two group A league matches, both away.

Tiwary said Mukesh Kumar's no-ball against Sidhu proved to be the turning point.

"Mukesh’s no-ball cost us three points. It happened thrice this season -- Ashok Dinda (against Tamil Nadu in Vijay Hazare), B Amit (against Andhra in Ranji). It cost us a lot. Hopefully we will be more disciplined in future."

Brief scores:

At New Delhi: Railways 182 and 79 (Mrunal Devdhar 38; Ronit More 6/32, Abhimanyu Mithun 3/17) vs Karnataka 211 (S R Sharath 62, Devdutt Padikkal 55; Amit Mishra 5/70) and 51/0.

Karnataka won by 10 wickets.

Karnataka 7 points, Railways 0 point.

At Dharamsala: Mumbai: 372/5 vs HP.

Match Drawn 1st innings unfinished.

Mumbai 1 point, HP 1 point.

At Delhi: Bengal 318 vs Delhi 242/7 from 82 overs (Dhruv Shorey 65, Jonty Sidhu 53 not out, Hiten Dalal 40; Mukesh Kumar 3/75).

Match drawn.

Bengal 1 point, Delhi 1.

At Cuttack: Odisha 436 all out in 136.3 overs (Debabrata Pradhan 79, Abhishek Raut 71, Shantanu Mishra 66, Anurag Sarangi 58, Govinda Poddar 58; Arup Das 4/101, Ranjeet Mali 4/113) beat Assam 238 all out in 82.2 overs (Ranjeet Mali 59, Kunal Saikia 53, Riyan Parag 43, Rishav Das 37; Debaratra Pradhan 4/37) and 195 all out in 65.4 overs (Subham Mandal 74, Kunal Saikia 72; Rajesh Mohanty 4/30, Suryakant Pradhan 3/53, Debabrata Pradhan 3/53) by an innings and 3 runs.

Odisha: 7 points, Assam: 0.

At Jammu: Chhattisgarh 270 for 4 in 90 overs (Harpreet Singh Bhatia 116, Abhimanyu Chauhan 51) vs Jammu & Kashmir 168 all out in 32.1 overs (Abdul Samad 33, Abid Mushtaq 31; Sumit Ruikar 4/82, Veer Pratap Singh 3/22).

Chhattisgarh 3 points, J&K 1.

At Dehradun: Uttarkhand 109 all out in 42 overs (Tinu Kundu 3/49) and 109 for 3 in 32 overs (Saurabh Rawat 30) drew with Haryana 142 all out in 43.2 overs (Harshal Patel 50; Agrim Tiwari 6/47). 

Haryana 3 points, Uttarakhand 1.

At Agartala: Tripura 121 all out in 38 overs (M B Murasingh 24; Manoj Ingale 6/34) and 290 all out in 90 overs (Pallab Das 77, Milind Kumar 67, Harmeet Singh 46, M B Mura Sinh 37; A Palkar 5/62, M G Choudhary 3/77) lost to  Maharashtra 208 all out in 64.2 overs (Vishant More 78 not out, Ankit Bawane 62, SM Gugale 34, VV More 30 batting; Mura Singh 3/246, AS Sarkar 3/59) and 205 for 5 in 55.5 overs (Ankit Bawane 61 not out, SM Gugale 57, AN Kazi 31; Rana Dutta 3/38) by five wickets.

Maharashtra: 6 points, Tripura 0.

At Delhi: Services 279 all out in 83.1 overs (Raushan Raj 79, Mohit Ahlawat 69, Pulkit Narang 38, Rajat Paliwal 38; Rahul Shukla 7/106) and 259 for 8 declared in 73 overs (Rahul Singh Gahlaut 82, Devender Lohchab 43) vs Jharkhand 153 all out in 53 overs (Sumit Kumar 38, Md Nazim 28; Diwesh Pathania 4/51, Raushan Raj 3/40) and 267 all out in 87.2 overs (Kumar Suraj 103, Utkarsh Singh 63, Saurabh Tiwary 29; Pulkit Narang 6/58).

Services: 6 points, Jharkhand 0.

At Chandigarh: Chandigarh 134 and 102/3; 22 overs (Manan Vohra 52). Puducherry 113; 29.2 overs (Paras Dogra 49; Shresth Nirmohi 7/46).

Match drawn.

Chandigarh 3 points, Puducherry 1.