Ranji Trophy round-up: Kulkarni stars as Mumbai take 3 points from draw against Bengal

A round-up of the Ranji matches played on Friday

Bengal managed to save the match but Mumbai walked away with three points due to the first innings lead on the fourth and final day of their Ranji Trophy Group A encounter in Nagpur on Friday.

Overnight 433/8, Bengal could add just four runs to the total and were bowled out for 437 with Dhawal Kulkarni grabbing a five-wicket haul.

Chasing a target of 308, Mumbai ended the match at 203/6 in 87 overs.

It was nonetheless an admirable comeback from Bengal, who had been bowled out for 99 in the first innings.

Although the first innings lead was conceded by them but the team can still draw confidence from the second innings performance in which skipper Manoj Tiwary (169) and Sudip Chatterjee (130) played big knocks.

In pursuit of the target, Mumbai were off to a disastrous start and lost their top-three batsmen with just 22 runs on the scoreboard.

However, the middle-order rescued the team with Shubham Ranjane's 193-ball 76 being the standout effort. He struck 11 hits to the fence during the course of his innings.

Abhishek Nayar was another notable performer with a 51-run knock, which was laced with eight fours.

Ashok Dinda starred with the ball for Bengal, snaring four wickets in his 27 overs, which cost 74 runs.

Brief Scores: Bengal: 99 and 437 vs Mumbai: 229 and 203/6 in 87 overs (Shubham Ranjane 76, Abhishek Nayar 51, Ashok Dinda 4/74).

Points: Mumbai 3, Bengal 1.

Delhi secures 3 points from rain-hit match against Vidarbha

Chennai: Former champions Delhi secured three points by virtue of first innings lead against Vidarbha after rains forced early closure to the four and final day's play of the Group B Ranji Trophy cricket match.

After a complete wash out of the third day's play on Thursday, the match resumed their morning following half hour loss due to wet ground conditions.

But the skies opened up once again just before the lunch break, forcing the umpires to finally call off the match at 2.45pm.

A total of 19 overs play was possible today during which Vidharba scored runs 37 for the loss of three wickets in their second innings.

Delhi had earlier declared their first innings at 250 for 8 in 81 overs yesterday in reply to Vidharba first innings total of 183 all out in 52.3 overs.

While Delhi got three points, Vidharba took away one point from the drawn encounter.

Saurashtra manage full points vs Karnataka after Gowtham scare

Patiala: Off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham snapped four quick wickets before Saurashtra huffed and puffed their way to a paltry target of 58 losing six wickets against Karnataka in a Ranji Trophy group league encounter.

Starting the final day on 168 for five, Karnataka were effectively 9 for five at resumption of play.

They could add only 48 runs to their total as they were all out for 216 in 92.4 overs -- only 16 runs better than their first innings effort.

Save opener Kaunian Abbas (74) and Manish Pandey (58), none of the others could make a mark.

Veteram off-spinner Kamlesh Makvana (3/56) and slow left-arm bowler Jay Chauhan (4/71) were the wreckers-in-chief.

Saurashtra were reeling at 36 for six before Arpit Vasavada (8) and Prerak Mankad (14) added 22 runs to win it for Saurashtra.

Brief Scores: Karnataka 200 and 216 (Kaunian Abbas 74, Manish Pandey 58, Jay Chauhan 4/71) vs Saurashtra 359 and 58/6 (Krishnappa Gowtham 4/14). Saurashtra won by 4 wickets.

Points: Karnataka 6; Saurashtra 0.

Bowlers clinch big win for UP against Railways

Rajkot: Left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav scalped four wickets as Uttar Pradesh dished out a fine bowling effort to comfortably beat Railways by a huge margin of 221 runs in a Group A Raniji Trophy cricket match.

Resuming the day at the 35 for five while chasing 377 runs for an outright win, the defeat was inevitable for Railways and it was just a matter of time for the UP bowling attack to drew curtains on the game.

UP bowlers took 61.5 overs on the fourth and final day to bundle out Railways for 155 as their last five wickets contributed 120 runs.

Avinash Yadav top-scored for Railways with 43 runs, while skipper Karn Sharma made 35.

Left-arm chinaman Kuldeep took four wickets giving away 33 runs, while pace duo of Praveen Kumar (2/22) and Imtiaz Ahmed (2/39) shared four wickets between them.

By virtue of the win, UP took home six points from the counter while Railways returned empty-handed.

Brief Scores: Uttar Pradesh: 259 & 330 all out in 90 overs (Shivam Chaudhary 124, Suresh Raina 91; Karn Sharma 5/71) beat Railways: 213 & 115 all out in 61.5 overs (Avinash Yadav 43; Kuldeep Yadav 4/33) by 221 runs.

Points: Uttar Pradesh 6, Railways 0.

Jiwanjot strikes a ton, leads Punjab to draw against Gujarat

Belagavi: Young batsman Jiwanjot Singh struck his eighth first class century to help Punjab salvage a draw against Gujarat in their Ranji Trophy Group A match.

Resuming the final day trailing by 341 runs, Jiwanjot (101) and Manan Vohra (47) added 49 runs for the second wicket before the latter was removed by Jasprit Bumrah.

Jiwanjot, though, found fantastic support from Uday Kaul, who scored a fighting 64 as the duo raised an unbeaten 165-run partnership.

Gujarat needed wickets to push for an outright win but Jiwanjot and Kaul dashed their hopes with their resilient batting even as Gujarat got three points courtesy first innings lead.

Jiwanjot faced 261 balls and hit 15 boundaries in his knock while Kaul took 178 balls with the help of seven boundaries.

Brief Scores: Gujarat 1st innings: 624 for 6 declared vs Punjab 247 and 241 for 2 (Following on) in 89 overs. (Jiwanjot Singh 101 not out, Uday Kaul 64 not out; Rush Kalaria 1/26, J Bumrah 1/30).

Jharkhand beat Assam by 5 wickets

Vizianagaram: Jharkhand dished out a disciplined all-round performance to notch up a five-wicket win over Assam on the fourth and final day of their Group B Ranji Trophy match on Friday.

Jharkhand thus grabbed six points from their fourth win out of seven games to jump to the top of the group B table with a total of 32 points, while Assam languished at the bottom after their fifth loss.

Rahul Shukla (3/74) and Ashish Kumar (2/49) produced a sensational spell of seam bowling to pick up the remaining five wickets as Assam ended their second innings at 299 after resuming at an overnight score of 269-5 in 98.2 overs.

With Assam adding just 30 runs to their overnight score, Jharkhand were left with a victory target of 110 runs at Dr PVG Raju ACA Sports Complex.

Opener Anand Singh (30) and I R Jaggi (34) then emerged as the top-scorers as Jharkhand piled up the runs in 20.2 overs, losing half of their side.

Seamers AK Das (3/49) and DS Goswami (2/38) were the pick of the bowlers for Assam.

Earlier, Arun Karthik (4) was the first to be dismissed after he was caught and bowled by Shukla in the 100th over. Overnight batsman Sibsankar Roy (86) was the next to go when he was caught by Kaushal Singh off Shukla's bowling in his next over.

A N Ahmed (9) was then caught by Jaggi off Ashish in the 103rd over, while Shukla cleaned up AK Das (0) as Assam slipped to 299-9. Ashish then picked up the last wicket Goswami (11) in the next over.

Brief Score:

Jharkhand 1st innings: 316; 2nd innings: 111/5 in 20.2 overs (I R Jaggi (34; AK Das 3/49) vs Assam 1st innings 126; 2nd innings: 299 (f/o) in 104.4 overs (S A Roy 86; R Shukla 3/74).

Services beat Chhattisgarh after conceding lead

Mumbai: Services turned the tables on Chattisgarh after conceding the first innings lead with their bowlers leading the way to provide for an exciting 18-run win in their Ranji Trophy Group C game at the BKC ground.

Having set their rivals a challenging task of scoring 285 for an outright win by declaring their second innings on Thursday at 340 for seven, Services bowlers rose up to the task and bundled out Chattisgarh for 266.

Medium pacer Diwesh Pathania led the way with a haul of 4 for 67 while left-arm slow bowler Vikas Yadav complemented him nicely with figures of 3 for 65.

Openers Sunny Gupta made 87 in 243 balls with 12 fours and held one end up after putting on 80 for the first wicket with captain Abhimanyu Chauhan, who scored a brisk 52 off 61 balls.

Pathani dismised Chauhan to end the partnership and give the much-needed opening into the rest of the batting line-up that collapsed without too much of a fight.

Avinash Singh Dhaliwal made 34 at no. 6 but the others capitulated to hand Services with a come-from-behind win.

Services gained six points to boost their points tally to 15 with a game in hand while Chattisgarh remained at the bottom with 11 points from 8 games.

Brief scores:  Services 225 and 340 for 7 decl. beat Chhattisgarh 281 and 266 (S Gupta 87, A Chauhan 52; D Pathania 4 for 67, V Yadav 3 for 65) by 18 runs. Points: Services 6, Chattisgarh 0.

Summarised scores of other Group C matches:

1) Haryana vs Himachal Pradesh at Valsad: Haryana: 402 & 162 for 3 in 37.4 overs (Shubham Rohilla 100 not out; Kanwar Abhinay 2/43) vs Himachal Pradesh: 233 & 432 for 5 decl. in 88 overs (Prashant Chopra 237; Rahul Tewatia 3/109). Match drawn. Points: Haryana 3, Himachal Pradesh 1.

2) Jammu and Kashmir vs Hyderabad at Vadodara: Hyderabad: 328 & 244 for 2 decl (Tanmay Agarwal 103 not out, S Badrinath 66) beat J&K: 169 & 117 all out in 37.2 overs (Ram Dayal 33; Chama Milind 4/39) by 286 runs. Points:Hyderabad 6, J&K 0.

3) Kerala vs Tripura at Cuttack: Tripura: 213 & 162 all out (Sumit Patel 54;  Akshay Chandran 4/16, Iqbal Abdulla 3/32) lost to Kerala: 193 & 183 for 3 in 51.4 overs (Mohammed Azharuddeen 99, Bhavin Thakkar 47; Gurinder Singh 3/40) by 7 wickets. Points: Kerala 6, Tripura 0.

Image: Dhawal Kulkarni

Photograph: Matt Roberts/Getty Images