Ranji Trophy round up: Mumbai defeat Odisha for first win of season, Delhi chase down tricky target to beat Uttar Pradesh

Bhubaneshwar: Mumbai registered their first win of the season, thrashing Odisha by 120 runs in a Ranji Trophy Group “C” match at KIIT Stadium on Saturday. Resuming at the overnight 93 for 4, Odisha capitulated in less than two sessions as Akash Parkar and Dhawal Kulkarni finished with three wickets apiece. Chasing 413 for an unlikely win, the home side was never in the hunt, losing wickets at regular intervals with only captain Govind Poddar offering resistance, with a knock of 87. [caption id=“attachment_3133248” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Dhawal Kulkarni. PTI[/caption] Poddar put on 90 runs with Shantanu Mitra (49) before falling to Abhishek Nayar, who also ended Biplab Samantaray’s doughty resistance, by bowling him for 31. Some lower-order resistance delayed the visitors’ victory with Suryakant Rawat hitting three sixers in his 21-ball 32. With the win, the 41-time Ranji champion moved to 10 points in the group. Mumbai next faces Baroda at home in what would be its 500th Ranji Trophy game, beginning 9 November. Odisha would meet Tamil Nadu in its next fixture at Cuttack. In other Group “C” games, Andhra Pradesh cruised to an eight-wicket win over Madhya Pradesh at Vizianagaram to gain six points. Subsequently Andhra moved to the top of the points table with 15 points, one more than MP. Brief Scores: Group “C” In Bhubaneshwar: Mumbai 289 all out in 99.5 overs (Prithvi Shaw 105) and 268 for 9 declared in 71 overs (Siddhesh Lad 117, Prithvi Shaw 46, Suryakant Pradhan 3 for 106) beat Odisha 145 all out in 50.5 overs and 292 all out in 85.1 overs (Govind Poddar 87, Shantanu Mishra 49, Akash Parkar 3 for 40, Dhawal Kulkarni 3 for 74). Points: Mumbai:6; Odisha: 0. In Vizianagaram: Madhya Pradesh 321 all out in 122.5 overs (Harpreet Singh Bhatia 88, Prithvi Raj Yarra 4 for 55) and 119 all out in 51.1 overs (Devendra Bundela 38, Bandaru Ayyappa 5 for 34) lost to Andhra Pradesh 376 all out in 115.2 overs (G Hanuma Vihari 77, Ashwin Hebbar 77, D B Ravi Teja 58, B Sumanth 57, Mihir Hirwani 5 for 82) and 65 for 2 in 13.1 overs. Points: Andhra Pradesh: 6; MP: 0. In Vadodara: Baroda 521 all out in 152.2 overs (Vishnu Solanki 116, A Sheth 95 not out, Abhijit Karambelkar 86, A S Sarkar 3 for 88) and 85 for 6 in 35 overs drew Tripura 436 all out in 156.3 overs (Smit Patel 158, Yashpal Singh 90, S M Singha 41, SS Mangalorkar 2 for 70). Points: Baroda: 3; Tripura: 1. Nitish, Milind anchor chase as Delhi beat UP by 4 wkts New Delhi: Nitish Rana’s fluent 67 and a patient unbeaten 48 from vice-captain Milind Kumar saw Delhi chase down a tricky target of 252 on the final day against Uttar Pradesh in their Ranji Group A encounter. Delhi with 16 points from 3 games are now second in the group behind leaders Karnataka with 20 from equal number of games. Starting the day at 224 for 7, UP lasted only 4.5 overs as Navdeep Saini (4/46) polished off the remaining three wickets with visitors second innings ending at 229. With a minimum of 83 overs to reach the target, Delhi knocked off the runs in 72.1 overs with minimum fuss. Unmukt Chand (49, 100 balls) and first innings hero Dhruv Shorey (32) added 53 for the second wicket after Gautam Gambhir’s early departure. But it was the partnership between Chand and Nitish Rana that yielded 71 runs for the third wicket before the former was dismissed in the 36th over. He was one short of his first 50 of the season. Rana, who hit 8 boundaries and a six added another 52 runs with Milind, who was a picture of concentration during his undefeated 109 ball knock. Once Rana was out in the 55th over, Rishabh Pant (26) hit a quickfire 26 off 34 balls to take the team closer before Navdeep Saini smashed three fours and a six in 12 balls to close the match. Brief Scores In Delhi (At Palam): UP 291 and 229 (Akshdeep Nath 110, Navdeep Saini 4/46, Ishant Sharma 3/38). Delhi 269 and (target 252) 256/6 (Nitish Rana 67, Milind Kumar 48 no). Delhi won by 4 wickets. Points: Delhi 6, UP 0. In Delhi (At Karnail Singh Stadium): Hyderabad 474/9 and (Target) 23 for no loss Railways 246 and 250 (f/0) (Manish Rao 85, Mehdi Hassan 4/35). Points: Hyderabad 7; Railways 0. In Pune: Maharashtra 245 and 247 (Ruturaj Gaikwad 65, Abhimanyu Mithun 5/66). Karnataka 628/5 decl. Points: Maharashtra 0; Karnataka 7. Bengal settle for 3 points after frustrating draw vs Himachal Kolkata: Rishi Dhawan’s fine all-round show enabled Himachal Pradesh to sto hosts Bengal from logging home full points in a Ranji Trophy group D encounter on Saturday. Having conceded a huge 213-run lead, Himachal Pradesh gave a much better account of themselves scoring 353 in the second innings -courtesy contributions from Priyanshu Khanudri (95), Prashant Chopra (81), Nikhil Gangta (57) and Dhawan (51 not out) Mohammed Shami (5/109) and Ashok Dinda (3/74) could not recreate the magic of the first innings as Dhawan played 90 balls and more importantly had a ninth wicket stand of 39 with Sidharth Sharma (1) which consumed an hour and half’s play. A target of 141 in the final session under fading light was next to impossible and Dhawan’s four-wicket burst ensured that captains decided to shake hands when Bengal were 65 for 4 in 15 overs. The India pacer Shami wrapped up the tail en route his sixth five-wicket haul in first-class cricket but by then HP had done enough to get a point. Bengal took it up positively promoting Wriddhiman Saha to open the innings but first innings centurion Raman (0) was gone first ball — a mistimed pull-shot off Dhawan. India A batsman Sudip Chatterjee (6) and skipper Manoj Tiwary (2) were sent back in successive overs before Dhawan also accounted for Shreevats Goswami (11). Chatterjee (6) edged one to gully while skipper Tiwary was cleaned up with an inside edge as the dismissal forced Saha (34 not out) to play for a draw and secure three points. It was a moral victory for Himachal having bounced back from being followed-on. Punjab now lead the group D table with 15 points while Vidarbha with 14 are currently second. Bengal, who were second, had a definite chance to take the lead but the draw meant they slipped to third place with 13 points. Bengal will play three more matches against Punjab, Vidarbha and Goa. Earlier, resuming on 207/2 after being followed-on in their second essay, Himachal were shown the way by youngster Khanduri, who batted for six hours 36 minutes in his second successive halfcentury of the match. Overnight duo of Khanduri and Gangta stood to their tasks with respective halfcenturies in a 93-run third wicket partnership as Himachal trailed past Bengal. Gangta scored his 50 off 74 balls while the opener Khanduri looked solid as the home team’s pace trio of Shami, Dinda and Mukesh toiled hard for the first breakthrough. It was in the seventh over of the day, Shami gave the opening in the form of Gangta who took an inside edge behind the stumps. Playing only his fourth first-class match, Khanduri, who has a century against Goa, however could not make a second triple figure after Bengal took the second new-ball in the 80th over. Khanduri edged one to wicketkeeper Saha behind his legs off the bowling Dinda who also dismissed Paras Dogra (6) while Shami made it 300/7 with the wicket of Amit Kumar (14). But before Shami and Dinda could make further inroads, Dhawan and Sharma turned the tide for Bengal in their 38-run partnership for the eighth wicket. Sharma (1) took 29 balls to open his account and ate up 39 balls in his 92 minutes stay at the crease, a partnership that frustrated Bengal who by then started losing hope for an outright win that could have pushed them to the top of the group D table. Brief Scores In Kolkata: Bengal 419 and 65/4; 15 overs. Himachal Pradesh 206 and f/o 353; 115 overs, (Priyanshu Khanduri 95, Prashant Chopra 81, Nikhil Gangta 57, Rishi Dhawan 51 not out; Mohammed Shami 5/109, Ashok Dinda 3/74). Match drawn. Points: Bengal 3; Himachal Pradesh 1. In Nagpur: Vidarbha 385 and 223/6 declared; 44 overs (Akshay Karnewar 48, Faiz Fazal 46, Sanjay Ramaswamy 42). Services 317 and 99; 28.1 overs (Akshay Wakhare 5/16, Karn Sharma 3/42). Vidarbha won by 192 runs. Vidarbha 6 points. Services 0. In Raipur: Chhattisgarh 238 and 297; 102.4 overs (Ashutosh Singh 119, Vishal Kushwah 45; Sandeep Sharma 4/89, Barinder Sran 3/65). Punjab 653/9 declared. Punjab won by an innings and 118 runs. Points: Punjab 7 points. Chhattisgarh 0. Saurashtra beat Jharkhand by 6 wickets Rajkot: Saurashtra beat Jharkhand by six wickets in a Ranji Trophy group B encounter bagging six points and move upto third in the points table. After following on, Jharkhand scored 341 in their second innings, courtesy a whirlwind 99 off 75 balls by Nazim Siddiqui, who hit 13 boundaries and two sixes. Wicketkeeper Sumit Kumar scored 108 off 147 balls with 12 boundaries and five sixes. Dharmendra Jadeja took 4 for 108. Chasing a meagre target of 59, Saurashtra achieved the target in 14 overs despite losing four wickets including Cheteshwar Pujara (3). Brief Scores In Pune: Saurashtra 553/9 decl and (target 59) 59/4. Jharkhand 270 and (follow on) 341 (Sumit Kumar 108, Nazim Siddiqui 99). Saurashtra won by 6 wickets. Points: Saurashtra 6; Jharkhand 0 In Valsad: Gujarat 236 and 281/9 declared. Harayana 157 and (target 361) 122 (Suddharth Desai 5/46, Piyush Chawla 5/44). Gujarat won by 238 runs. Points: Gujarat 6; Haryana 0. In Thumba: Kerala 219 and 191. Jammu and Kashmir 173 and (target 238) 79 (KC Akshay 5/21). Kerala won by 158 runs. Points: Kerala 6; Jammu and Kashmir 0.