Ranji Roundup: Kulkarni gives Mumbai advantage; Andhra sniff victory

Pacer Dhawal Kulkarni took five wickets as Mumbai reduced Baroda to 345 for nine on day three of the Ranji Trophy match, in Vadodra, on Saturday.

Mumbai looked set to take the all important first innings lead with Baroda still trailing by 102 runs.

Baroda lost a flurry of wickets towards the end of day's play to fall behind in the game. However, number 10 and 11, Murtuja Vahora (25 n.o.) and Sagar Mangalorkar (15 n.o.) did well to frustrate the opposition.

Kedar Devdhar fell five short of a hundred after beginning the day on 84 while Aditya Waghmode went on to make 57.

Brief Scores:

Mumbai: 447 all out in 127.1 overs

Baroda: 345/9 in 140 overs (Kedar Devdhar 95, Aditya Waghmode 57; Dhawal Kulkarni 5/69).

Andhra look to post a win over UP

Having already taken a healthy 127-run first innings lead, Andhra will now look to post an outright win over Uttar Pradesh after finishing the third and penultimate day on 26 for one, chasing 183 in their Group ‘B’ match, in Ongole, Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra need 157 more runs with nine wickets in hand on the fourth and final day on Sunday.

At the close of play, KS Bharat was unbeaten on 16 and skipper Mohammad Kaif was yet to open his account.

Earlier, resuming on 39 for three in their second innings, Uttar Pradesh lost two early wickets to be reeling at 52 for five.

It was the lower order batsmen in Eklavya Dwivedi (72), Mohammad Kaif (56) and Praveen Kumar (53) who steadied the boat and took the visitors past 300-run mark.

Uttar Pradesh finally got all out for 309, setting the hosts a target of 183 runs.

In their second essay, Andhra lost a wicket in the form of opener DB Prasanth (6).

Brief scores:

Uttar Pradesh: 170 & 309 (Eklavya Dwivedi 72, Mohammad Kaif 56, Praveen Kumar 53; DP Vijaykumar 4/68).

Andhra: 297 & 26 for one in 11 overs.

Sarwate, Wakhare share 10 wickets as Vidarbha look at victory

Aditya Sarwate (6/64) and Akshay Wakhare (4/37) shared 10 wickets between them to bundle out Assam for 160 in their second innings and give Vidarbha a good chance of posting a win, having finished day three on 88 for no loss, chasing 213 in a Group ‘A’ tie in Nagpur.

Vidarbha need just 125 more runs with 10 wickets intact on the fourth and final day.

Although Vidarbha had conceded a 52-run first innings lead after getting all out for 154 in reply to Assam's first essay total of 206, the home team bowlers struck back hard on Saturday to give their team a genuine chance of registering an outright victory.

Resuming on 36 for two in their second innings, Assam kept losing wickets at regular interval today even as spin duo of Sarwate and Wakhare wrecked havoc. Lower order batsman Swarupam Purkayastha top scored with 35.

Vidarbha, in their second innings, got off to an ideal start with openers Faiz Fazal and Wasim Jaffer remaining unbeaten on 38 and 43, respectively.

Brief scores:

Assam: 206 & 160 (Swarupam Purkayastha 35; Aditya Sarwate 6/64, Akshay Wakhare 4/37).

Vidarbha: 154 & 88 for no loss in 31 overs.

MP takes first innings lead despite Kaul's hundred

Punjab batsman Uday Kaul hit his 15th first class hundred but could not stop Madhya Pradesh from taking the first innings lead as the hosts were bowled out for 358, just 12 short of the visitors' total in Patiala.

Punjab were in a strong position when they resumed at 182 for two but lost overnight batsman Mandeep Singh in the fifth ball of the day. He was caught by Ankit Sharma off Ishwar Pandey, the two players who brought MP back in the match with their superb bowling.

Left-hander Kaul kept the one end tight but saw batsmen coming and going one after another.

Elegant left-hander Yuvraj Singh (6) was also scalped by Pandey and Punjab started to slide after that as Ankit (5/122) returned with a five-wicket haul.

Himanshu Chawla was the only batsman who supported Kaul well, scoring a patient 49.

In their second innings, MP were 81 for three with with Sarabjit Ladda taking all the wickets.

Opener Jalaj Saxena was batting at 31 but other top order batsmen -- Aditya Shrivastava (27), Harpreet Singh (8) and Udit Birla (1) -- became Ladda's victims.

Giving Saxena company was Puneet Datey (5).

Gujarat thrash Railways by an innings and 36 runs

Gujarat scored a comprehensive innings victory over hapless Railways as their bowlers grabbed 16 wickets on the third day in New Delhi.

Railways resumed the day on their overnight 168/4 and they folded their first innings at 234, in reply to Gujarat's 387. R P Singh and Jasprit Bumrah took four wickets apiece and Gujarat asked Railways to follow-on at the Karnail Singh Stadium.

The batting slide began last evening when three Railways batsmen were shot out with the score on 168. The woeful form continued this morning as Prashant Awasti and Mahesh Rawat were dismissed between the 53rd and 55th overs.

That meant Railways went from 168 for 1 to 168 for 6.

In their second innings, Railways did even worse as none of their batsmen could reach 30. They were shot out for 117 in no time in just 39.4 overs to lose the match by an innings and 36 runs.

Gujarat bowlers shared the spoils in Railways second innings. Bumrah and Mehul Patel grabbed two wickets apiece while R P Singh and Rush Kalaria got two each.

Gujarat collected seven points from the win while Railways got none.

Brief Score:

Gujarat: 387 (Priyank Panchal 141, Rush Kalaria 80, Parthiv Patel 58, Anureet Singh 4/91) beat Railways: 234 (Saurabh Wakaskar 93; RP Singh 4/55, Jasprit Bumrah 4/47) and 117 (Arindam Gohsh 25; Mehul Patel 3/25, Bumrah 3/37).

J&K strengthen position in Ranji Trophy match against Tripura

Jammu and Kashmir tightened their grip over the Group ‘C’ match against Tripura after bowling out the hosts for 224 and then taking their lead to 367 at the end of the third day in Agartala.

The visitors were 163 for three in their second innings with Bandeep Singh (51) and Ian Dev Singh (40) at the crease.

J&K can push for a victory from here by declaring their innings asking the hosts to begin their chase on Sunday morning.

Tripura began the day at 85 for 2 but the batting flopped as only Parvinder Singh (60) put up some resistance while others capitulated.

Paceman Ram Dayal was the most successful bowler for J&K with four for 51. He had scalped two batsmen on Friday.

Brief Scores:

Jammu & Kashmir: 428 and 163 for 3 in 30 overs. (Bandeep

Singh 51 batting, Ian Dev Singh batting 40; Rana Dutta 2/24)

Tripura 1st innings: 224 all out in 91.3 overs. (Parvinder

Singh 60; R Dayal 4/51, Umar Nazir 2/52).

Karnataka fancy outright win against Haryana

Karnataka need 364 runs to register an outright win in their Group ‘A’ Ranji Match against Haryana, who declared their second innings at 262 runs for nine on day three in Bengaluru.

At stumps on Day Three, Karnataka were nine without loss with openers Robin Uthappa, batting on zero and India opener K L Rahul on nine.

Batting first, Karnataka posted 221 all out in first innings, and in reply Haryana scored 331, gaining a lead of 110 runs.

After conceding first innings lead to Haryana, Karnataka will not be wanting to lose vital points and instead would look for gaining maximum points by registering an outright victory.

Resuming their overnight score of 27 for no loss with 137-run advantage, Haryana surged to 262 for nine declared, with lot of explanation to be done to fans for why captain Virender Sehwag came out to bat at number seven, especially after he had cracked a wonderful 136 in the first innings, while batting at number three.

Though Karnataka felt the absence of H S Sharath, who is down with flu, the hosts did well to keep visiting batmen under check. They first removed Rahul Dewan (19) early on, but Nitin Saini (52) and Chiatanya Bishnoi (33) addede 61 runs for the second wicket.

Leggie Shreyas Gopal scalped Saini's wicket a few overs before lunch, a session where Haryana scored 84 runs in 38 overs.

Haryana lost three quick wickets between the score of 103 to 116, leaving the score at 116 for four in 53.1 overs.

Consequently, Haryana struggled to hold the fort, but Sehwag came to the party and smashed a quickfire 40 off 36 balls with four boundaries and a six, leaving Karnataka to get 373 runs for a win.

The chief-wrecker was Gopal who claimed four wickets for 53 runs and David Mathias along with Vinay Kumar, both scalped two wickets each.

Services 281/7 against Kerala

Services let slip a good start to be reduced to 281 for seven in reply to Kerala's first innings total of 322 on the third day of their Group ‘C’ cricket match in New Delhi.

Overnight 66 for no loss, Services were cruising along at 160 for two but lost the plot from there on to still trail by 41 runs.

Opener Anshul Gupta (68) and Ravi Chauhan (56) were notable contributors in the Services line-up. Lower down the order Vikas Hathwala added 45 runs to the total.

For Kerala, K S Monish (3/90) and Rohan Prem (2/35) were instrumental in tying up Services.

At stumps, Muzzaffaruddin Khalid (0) and Raushan Raj (3) were holding fort for the home team.

Brief Scores:

Kerala 1st Innings: 322

Services 1st Innings: 281/7 in 112 overs (Anshul Gupta 68, Ravi Chauhan 56, K S Monish 3/90).