Ranji Roundup: Samson hits ton, Delhi reach quarters

A round-up of Ranji matches played on Sunday

Kerala need 9 wickets for outright win

Sanju Samson continued his good form and struck a quickfire century as Kerala need another nine wickets on the final day of the play to register an outright win over Saurashtra in a Ranji Trophy Group B match, in Thiruvananthapuram.

At stumps on the third day of the play, on Sunday, Kerala reduced Saurashtra to 30 for one after declaring their second innings at 411 for six.

Saurashtra still trail Kerala by 375 runs with nine wickets in hand and a full day's play remaining.

Opener Avi Barot (6) was the lone wicket to fall for Saurashtra. Snell Patel (15 not out) and Robin Uthappa (8) was at the crease at the close of play.

Earlier resuming their second innings at the overnight score of 69 for one, Samson hit a fluent 175 off 180 balls with the help of 16 boundaries and eight sixes, while KB Arun Karthik made 81 off 132 balls to guide Kerala to 411 for six declared in 92 overs.

Brief Scores:

Kerala: 225 & 411 for six in 92 overs (Sanju Samson 175, KB Arun Karthik 81; Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 4/153)

Saurashtra: 232 & 30 for one in 15 overs (Snell Patel 15 not out, Robin Uthappa 8 not out; Sijomon Joseph 1/9).

At Surat: Rajasthan: 153 & 183 for four in 61 overs (Robin Bist 81, Chetan Bist 54; Siddharth Desai 2/68).

Gujarat 1st innings: 601 for four declared in 155 overs (Parthiv Patel 173, Priyank Panchal 152, Bhargav Merai 110, Manprit Juneja 83; Mahipal Lomror 1/95).

At Rohtak: Haryana: 184 & 161 for nine in 83 overs (Rajat Paliwal 45; Ram Dayal 5/42).

J&K 1st innings: 176 all out in 54.5 overs (Ahmed Bandy 67; Ashish Hooda 3/38, Ajit Chahal 3/64).

Bengal inch closer to quarter-final berth with innings victory

Rookie medium pacer Ishan Porel grabbed his maiden five-wicket haul as Bengal inched closer towards quarter-final with an emphatic innings and 19 run win over Punjab in a Ranji Trophy group D encounter, in Amritsar.

Openers Abhishek Raman (155) and Abhimanyu Easwaran (117) propelled Bengal to 379 for 9 before declaring with a big lead of 232 runs.

Punjab were then bowled out for 213 in 56.1 overs with former India U-19 Porel finishing with figures of 5 for 32 in 10.1 overs. Debutant left-arm spinner Pradipta Pramanik (2/72 in 20 overs) and all-rounder B Amit (2/32 in 11 overs) also shared the spoils.

Bengal with 20 points from five games will now need to get at least a first innings lead against Goa in their final home match in order to ensure a smooth passage into the last eight.

In Amritsar: Punjab 147 and 213 in 56.1 overs (Gurkeerat Singh 57, Anmolpreet Singh 40, Ishan Porel 5/32)

Bengal 1st Innings 379/9 decl (Abhishek Raman 155, Abhimanyu Easwaran 117). Bengal won by innings and 19 runs.

In Porvorim: Goa 239 and 19/2.

Vidarbha 427/3 decl (Wasim Jaffer 158, Sanjay Ramaswamy 87, Ganesh Sathish 101).

In Raipur: Chattisgarh 130 and 133 (Diwesh Pathania 7/41)

Services 272 (Vikas Hathwala 76, Shahnawaz Hussain 5/59)

Navdeep, Vikas get Delhi into quater-final

Navdeep Saini's lion-hearted effort complemented by Vikas Mishra's disciplined bowling saw Delhi crush Maharashtra by an innings and 61 runs in a group A encounter to ensure quarter-final berth in the Ranji Trophy.

Delhi now will play an inconsequential final away league encounter against Hyderabad having already ensured a last eight berth with 24 points from five games.

The other team that is set to qualify from this group is Karnataka (23 from 4 games till today) as none of the remaining states have any mathematical chance whatsoever.

In reply to Delhi's first innings score of 419, Maharashtra scored 99 and 259 in their two innings as the match ended on the third day itself.

Brief Scores

In Delhi: Delhi 419. Maharashtra 99 and (f/o) 259 (Rahul Tripathi 106, Navdeep Saini 4/57, Vikas Mishra 4/90)

In Kanpur: Karnataka 1st Innings 655 (Manish Pandey 238, Dega Nischal 190, Imtiaz Ahmed 6/110)

UP 1st Innings 243/5 (Suresh Raina 0, Umang Sharma 89, Shivam Chaudhary 57, Rinku Singh 57, Ronit More 2/54)

In Guwahati: Hyderabad 1st Innings 326.

Railways 136 and 300/7 (Amit Sinha 96, Rajjakuddin Ahmed 75, M Ravi Kran 2/61)

MP fights back after conceding lead to TN       

The Madhya Pradesh top-order held firm after conceding the first innings lead to keep Tamil Nadu at bay, reaching 142 for 1 at stumps on day three of the Ranji Trophy Group C match in Indore.

The visitors had earlier shrugged off the early loss of N Jagadeesan, who fell for 101, to secure a 62-run lead riding on a strokeful ton by V Yomahesh, his second this season after being recalled.

Tamil Nadu finished with 326 in response to MP's first innings score of 264.

Opener Rajat Patidar, batting on 81 off 131 balls (12 fours and a six) and Shubham Sharma (41, 79 balls) saw off a tricky early spell from the Tamil Nadu bowlers K Vignesh and M Mohammed to build the innings.

By the end of the day the host had increased the lead to 80 runs.

Brief scores: Madhya Pradesh 264 all out in 90.1 overs (Ankit Sharma 77, Ankit Dane 63, Ishwar Pandey 29, K Vignesh 4 for 32, M Mohammed 3 for 67) and 142 for 1 in 40 overs (Rajat Patidar 81 batting) vs Tamil Nadu 326 all out in 105.4 overs (N Jagadeesan 101, V Yomahesh 103 not out, M Mohammed 43, Ishwar Pandey 3 for 67, P Datey 3 for 55).

At Ongole: Mumbai 332 all out in 132 overs (Prithvi Shaw 114, Siddhesh Lad 86, Dhawal Kulkarni 50 not out, Abhishek Nayar 35, B Ayyappa 4 for 110, K V Sasikanth 3 for 61) and 190 for 4 in 41 overs (Shreyas Iyer 75 batting, Suryakumar Yadav 33) vs Andhra Pradesh 215 all out in 77 overs (Ricky Bhui 69, G H Vihari 70, Shardul 5 for 55, Dhawal Kulkarni 3 for 44).

At Vadodara: Baroda 503 all out in 137.4 overs (Kedar Devdhar 104, N A Rathva 115 not out, Vishnu Solanki 109, Deepak Hooda 51, Basant Mohanty 5 for 85) vs Odisha 315 for 5 in 120 overs (Subranshu Senapati 131 batting, Biplab
Samantaray 55).