Ranji roundup: Mumbai in command, HP fight back

Bhubaneshwar: Siddesh Lad's strokeful 117 and the bowlers' superb showing put Mumbai in the driver's seat against Odisha at the end of the third day in a Ranji Trophy Group C match with the hosts struggling at 93 for four in pursuit of 413 for victory.

Lad's century, studded with 17 fours and one six, enabled Mumbai post a second innings total of 268 for nine declared before the bowlers took over.

Resuming at the overnight 58 for three, Mumbai lost wickets in the space of less than 30 runs including that of captain Aditya Tare. However, Lad and veteran Abhishek Nayar, who came together at 85 for six, arrested the slide.

Lad, who looked to mix aggression with defence, added 57 runs with Nayar and another 76 runs with Akash Parkar (21) to revive his team.

A ninth-wicket partnership of 42 runs with Shardul Thakur rubbed salt into Odisha's wounds and extended the lead beyond the 400-mark.

The Odisha team, which had a horror start in the first innings, losing four wickets for just two runs, lost opener Sandeep Pattanaik at 13 but Natraj Behera and captain Govind Poddar came to the rescue.

Akash Parkar struck twice late in the day to leave Odisha at 93 for 4 and facing a huge task to save the game on the fourth and final day, on Saturday.

Group C Brief scores:

At Bhubaneshwar: Mumbai 289 and 268 for 9 declared in 71 overs (Siddesh Lad 117, Prithvi Shaw 46, S Pradhan 3 for 106) vs Odisha 145 and 93 for 4 in 29 overs (G Poddar 48 not out).

At Vizianagaram: Madhya Pradesh 321 and 67 for 5 vs Andhra Pradesh 376 (H Vihari 77, A Hebbar 77, R Teja 58, B Sumanth 57, M Hirwani 5 for 82).

At Vadodara: Baroda 521 (V Solanki 116, A Sheth 95 not out, A Karambelkar 86) vs Tripura 327 for 4 (S Patel 123 not out, Yashpal Singh 90, S M Singha 41).

Himachal fight back after follow-on

Kolkata: Himachal Pradesh staged a brilliant fightback after being made to follow-on against Bengal on Day 3 the Ranji Trophy Group D match at the Eden Gardens on Friday.

Ashok Dinda claimed five wickets while Mohammed Shami picked up three wickets to bowl out Himachal for 206. Following-on Prashant Chopra and Priyanshu Khanduri struck half-centuries to guide the visitors to 207 for two at stumps, to reduce the deficit to just two runs.

Himachal openers Prashant Chopra (81) and Priyanshu Khanduri (67 not out) put on a solid 125-run stand before Mukesh Kumar finally provided the breakthrough at the stroke of tea.

Pressed into action, Shami dismissed skipper Sumeet Verma for a duck with an addition of four runs but Khanduri and Nikhil Gangta (43 not out) showed fine application to end the third day without any further damage.

Continuing his fine run in his debut season, Khanduri struck his second successive half-century of the match and braved a furious spell from Shami with the ball staying precariously low at times.

On 51, Khanduri was hit by a toe-crushing yorker as he lost his balance but the 22-year-old, playing in his third first-class match, showed tremendous resolve and resumed his innings.

Khanduri, who hit a century against Goa, found fine support from Gangta, who has slammed back-to-back centuries in their last two matches as they put on an unbroken 78-run partnership for the third wicket to reduce the deficit to six runs.

Earlier, resuming the day with 256 runs in arrears Himachal managed to add 43 runs to their overnight total as their remaining five wickets could not stand against the fury of Dinda and Shami and their first innings folded in 56.2 overs.

The day began with some hostile bowling from the Bengal pace duo.

With pace and swing, Shami moved the ball from good length, while Dinda generated awkward bounce off the track in a fine seam bowling display in the morning session.

It was Dinda, who gave the first breakthrough of the day when Ankush Bains (5) edged one to Abhimanyu Easwaran at the second slip.

Having troubled the batsmen with his pace and swing, Shami finally got his due sending Rishi Dhawan's off-stump cartwheeling after the Himachal batsman got an inside edge.

Dinda then scalped the wickets of Pankaj Jaiswal and Gurvinder Singh to register his 24th first-class five-wicket haul, while Mukesh Kumar wrapped it up after trapping Amit Kumar.

Group D Brief Scores:

In Kolkata: Bengal 419 vs Himachal Pradesh 206 and 207 for two (Prashant Chopra 81, Priyanshu Khanduri 67 not out).

In Nagpur: Vidarbha 385 annd 111 for 2 (Faiz Fazal 46) vs Services 317 in 113 overs (Nakul Verma 71, Rahul Singh 63, Akshay Wakhare 5/87).

In Raipur: Chhatisgarh 238 and 171 for 4 (Ashutosh Singh 81 not out) vs Punjab 653 for 9 dec (Anmolpreet Singh 267, Gurkeerat Singh 111, Jiwanjot Singh 75; Shourabh Kharwar 3/107).

Jadeja goes wicketless as Saurashtra enforces follow-on

Rajkot: India international Ravindra Jadeja went wicketless for 87 runs in his 19 overs but Saurashtra managed to enforce a follow-on on Jharkhand at the end of the third day in a Ranji Trophy Group B encounter.

In reply to Saurashtra's 553 for 9, Jharkhand were all out for 270 runs in their first innings as the hosts got a whopping 283-run lead.

After being followed on, Jharkhand were 139 for 1, still 144 runs in arrears. They would be eying to bat the whole day in order to at least get a point from the game.

Off-spinner Vandit Jivarajani (4/33) bowled well as Jharkhand lost last six wickets for 65 runs.

Ishank Jaggi (114) and Ishan Kishan (59) added 133 runs for the fifth wicket stand before Jivarajani ran through the middle and lower order.

In the second innings, opener Nazim Siddiqui smashed unbeaten 83 off 58 balls with 11 boundaries and two sixes.

Brief Scores

In Rajkot: Saurashtra 553/9 decl.

Jharkhand 270 (Ishank Jaggi 114, Ishank Jaggi 59, Vandit Jivarajani 4/33) and 139/1 (follow on) (Nazim Siddiqui 83 no).

In Valsad: Gujarat 236 and 281/9 decl (Priyank Panchal 67, Bhargav Merai 66, Sanjay Pahal 4/49)

Haryana 157 and 94/7 (Piyush Chawla 3/24, Siddharth Desai 4/38).

In Thumba: Kerala 219 and 191 (Rohan Prem 58, Parveez Rasool 5/70) J& K 173 and (target 238) 56/7 (MD Niddhesh 2/7).

Nath puts UP in command

New Delhi: Akshdeep Nath struck his second first-class hundred, a rather timely one, to put Uttar Pradesh in a strong position after they took a slender first innings lead against Delhi on day three of the Ranji Trophy Group A.

During the fag end of the day, there was a security breach at the ground as a man in an allegedly inebriated state, drove onto the pitch before being detained by the security personnel.

In the match, in response to UP's 291, Delhi could only get to 269 after resuming the day at 228 for six with overnight batsman Dhruv Shorey running out of the partner to miss out on a deserving hundred by two runs.

In the second innings, Delhi had UP on the mat at 21 for four before Nath (batting 110) and Rinku Singh (64) forged a potentially match-winning stand of 108 runs to steer to their team to 224 for seven at stumps on day three, leading the oppostion by 246 runs.

UP, who have had a poor start to the season, have a good chance of winning the game going into the fourth and final, considering anything close to 300 will be a daunting target on a deteriorating surface.

Captain Suresh Raina (16) was out cheaply again, making it 21 for four and it seemed his team had a reached a point of no return in the game.

But UP fought back valiantly through Nath and Singh before the century maker shared an 86-run stand with Upendra Yadav (30) to push the total beyond 200.

Delhi let UP off the hook and paid the price.

Brief Scores

In Delhi: UP 291 and 224/7 in 63 overs (Akshdeep Nath batting 110, Rinku Singh 64; Ishant Sharma 3/38). Delhi 269 in 87 overs (Dhruv Shorey 98; Saurabh Kumar 4/87).

In Pune: Maharashtra 245 and 135/4 (Ruturaj Gaikwad 61, Abhimanyu Mithun 2/32). Karnataka 628/5 (Mayank Agarwal 304 no)

In Delhi: Hyderabad 474/9 decl. Railways 246 & 13/0.