A round up of the second day's action of the Ranji Trophy Super League matches on Sunday.
Narwal sizzles as Delhi beat Orissa
An all-round performance by Sumit Narwal, who hit an unbeaten half-century and scalped three wickets, helped Delhi beat Orissa by 52 runs and bag five crucial points in their Ranji Trophy Super League match in New Delhi on Sunday.
Narwal slammed a gritty unbeaten 66 to help Delhi post 150 in 44.5 overs and later combined with pacer Ishant Sharma to shot out the visitors for 96 in 33.1 overs.
Needing 149 to win, Orissa faltered with the pace and swing of Ishant Sharma and Narwal as the duo ripped through the top-order to leave the visitors tottering at 30 for five in 14 overs.
Opening the bowling, Narwal wrecked havoc in the Orissa camp from one side and returned with figures of 11-3-25-3 while Ishant made the visitors dance to his tune scalping four wickets in his 11.1 overs giving away just 27 runs.
Parvinder Awana then joined the party and claimed two wickets in two balls to leave the visitors struggling at 51 for seven in 20.4 overs.
Earlier, resuming the day at 38 for four in 15 overs, Delhi were in danger when they lost three quick wickets -- Virender Sehwag (32), Puneet Bisht (0) and Rajat Bhatia (6) -- with 49 on the board.
But Narwal stood amidst the ruins and weaved crucial partnerships with the tailenders -- 34 runs with Pradeep Sangwan, 20 with Ishant and 47 runs with Awana -- to help hosts reach a modest score of 150.
Narwal had his share of the luck when he was dropped on 26 by 12th man Samir Mohanty at fine leg with the scoreboard reading 103 for eight.
Orissa paid the price as Narwal went on to score a match-winning innings and struck one six and a four in the 40th over that cost 11 runs, before clubbing three more sixes in the next over off Sukanta Khatua to amass 29 in two overs.
Tiwary ton helps Bengal take lead
Manoj Tiwary (109) returned to form with a patient hundred and shared a 146-run third wicket stand with Arindam Ghosh to help Bengal take a 219-run first innings lead over Tripura in their Ranji Trophy Plate League Group B encounter at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday.
At stumps on day two, Tripura were 111 for five in their second innings with Nishit Shetty (46 not out) and Tushar Saha (5 not out) still at the crease.
They still require 108 runs to avoid an innings defeat.
Resuming at 138 for two, the overnight duo of Ghosh and Tiwary started confidently but the former departed after completing his half-century. He fell to Jayanta Debnath.
Skipper Laxmi Ratan Shukla joined Tiwary in the middle and began proceedings with a boundary and a six.
With Tiwary approaching three-figure mark, opting for a cautious approach, Shukla spanked the Tripura bowlers.
A sketchy-looking Tiwary took his time to complete his century and soon became the victim of the off-spinner Debnath, who was the most successful Tripura bowler with three for 74.
Tiwary scored 109 from 218 balls with 12 hits to the boundary. Shukla chipped in with a 48-run cameo from 102 balls with five fours and one six as Bengal's first innings folded for 307.
Tripura once again made a shaky start, losing four wickets for just 34 runs. However, Nishit Shetty and Abhijit Dey (37) combined for 71 runs for the fifth wicket to rescue the team from an early defeat.
Off-spinner Ritam Kundu brought an end to the partnership by trapping Dey.
Earlier, Ranadeb Bose, who claimed five wickets in the first innings, took two wickets to jolt Tripura, while Ashok Dinda and Manoj Tiwary bagged one each.
Baroda take first innings lead
Yusuf Pathan (58), Pinal Shah (56) and Irfan Pathan (51) helped Baroda take first innings lead of 77 runs in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group match against Maharashtra at the Motibag Ground in Vadodara on Sunday.
Credit goes to the overnight batsmen Yusuf and Azhar Bilakhia, who put Baroda on a firm footing.
Maharashtra, who finished their first innings on 228, took advantage of overcast conditions to reduce Baroda to 24 for three with seamers Samad Fallah and Moondeep Mangla doing a good job.
It was at this juncture that Yousuf and Bilakhia (48) came together and posted 106 for the fourth wicket.
Yusuf scored runs at a steady pace and his 97-ball knock including 10 boundaries. Bilakhia, though, was cautious at the other end and hit eight fours in his 129-ball innings.
Yusuf fell while going for a single as Kedar Jadhav's accurate throw found him short of the crease.
Irfan and Pinal then added 77 form the sixth wicket and they took the score to 207 for six, needing 21 more runs to surpass Maharashtra's total.
Irfan's 68-ball 51 contained 11 fours while Pinal hit eight boundaries in his 56.
After Irfan's departure, Pinal teamed up with Rajesh Pawar (43) and they added 74 runs for the seventh wicket that helped them surpass Maharashtra's total.
Fallah was the most successful bowler from the visiting side, claiming five wickets for 104 runs.
UP eye first innings lead
Praveen Kumar (98) missed completing his century by a whisker while teammate RP Singh claimed three wickets as Uttar Pradesh took the box seat eyeing a first innings lead at the end of second day's play in their Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match against Railways in New Delhi on Sunday.
In reply to UP's first innings total of 346, hosts Railways lost their top half before reaching 118 for five with Yere Goud (50) and Mahesh Rawat (28) in the middle after the top order batsmen, including captain Sanjay Bangar (0) let the side down.
Resuming on 275 for eight wickets, UP went on to add another 71 runs before folding for 346 in 117.4 overs.
Praveen, in company of Amir Khan (24 not out), went after the Railways bowlers, sparing no one. The Team India discard blasted eight boundaries and three sixes and the century looked just a matter of time when the UP player fell to Bangar after a 129-ball 98.
For the hosts, Anureet Singh, Murali Kartik and Karan Sharma scalped three wickets each.
In contrast, Railways had a disastrous start and by the seventh over of their innings, the hosts were gasping for breath after being reduced to 12 for four wickets.
UP new ball colleagues RP Singh and Bhuvneswar Kumar ran through the Railways top order to push them on the backfoot.
Rajasthan facing follow on
Requiring 195 runs to avoid the ignominy of follow-on, Rajasthan were tottering at 106 for five at the end of second day's play in their Elite Division Ranji Trophy match against Saurashtra in Rajkot on Sunday.
Rajesh Bishnoi (20), Nikhil Doru (7) were the at crease for the visitors when stumps were drawn for the day.
Rajasthan had a poor start losing both the openers cheaply. Gagan Khoda, who failed to open his account, was the first man to be dismissed when he offered a catch to wicketkeeper S Jogiyani off Sandip Jobanputra while his partner Vineet Saxena (9) was sent back in a similar fashion by Balkrishna Jadeja.
Captain Venugopal Rao put some resistance during his 96 minutes stay at the crease along with Robin Bisht.
But both the batsman were sent back to pavilion by Rakesh Dhruve and Kamlesh Makwana in quick succession.
Rao made 32 (64 balls, 5 boundaries) while Bisht contributed 24 from 86 balls with four hits to the fence.
For Saurashtra, off-spinner Kamlesh Makwana was the most successful bowler with figures of 2-28, while Sandip Jobanputra, Balkrishna Jadeja and Rakesh Dhruve claimed a wicket each.
Earlier, resuming at an overnight score of 270-5, Saurashtra managed to score 344 before being bundled out.
Centurion Bhushan Chauhan added only three more runs to his overnight score of 111, while Sagar Jogiyani chipped in with a useful 49 that came off 129 balls with three fours.
Pankaj Singh was the wrecker-in-chief for Rajasthan claiming five wickets for 59 while left-arm-spinner, Gajendra Singh took four wickets for 119 runs.
Andhra comfortably placed
B Sumanth struck an unbeaten 70 to guide Andhra Pradesh to 191 for three in the first innings at the end of second day's play in their Ranji Super League Group B match against Tamil Nadu in Vijayawada on Sunday.
Sent into bat, Andhra Pradesh openers started the innings on a cautious note with both the openers Hemal Watekar (39) and Prasad Reddy (9) putting on 23 runs for the first wicket in 10.2 overs before Reddy was caught by S Badrinath off Ganapathy.
Next man in D Prabhu Kiran scored 11 off 53 balls before he edged a Palani Amarnath delivery to Dinesh Karthik.
However, Watekar and Sumanth steadied the Andhra innings, putting on 74-run for the third before Watekar's patient innings came to an end.
Waterkar's marathon 269 minute stay at the crease was curtailed when he gave a simple catch to R Ashwin off C Suresh.
Sumanth's 70 came off 212 balls with the help of three hits to fence, while skipper Y Gnaneswara Rao was unbeaten on 43 with the help of seven boundaries.
Earlier, no play was possible on the opening day because of continuous rain.
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