Ranji Trophy: Mumbai, Karnataka, Goa, J&K register wins

Mumbai, Karnataka, Goa and Jammu and Kashmir registered outright wins in the fifth round of the Ranji Trophy cricket that concluded Sunday. At the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, home team Mumbai just needed 5.4 overs to pick up the last two Vidarbha wickets and complete a 338-run win. Chasing 530 in the last innings, Vidarbha started the day trailing at 177 for eight. Shardul Thakur picked up the two wickets for his first-class personal best of four for 48. [caption id=“attachment_1261249” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Mumbai captain Zaheer Khan and other players after their win over Vidarbha. PTI[/caption] In Cuttack, home team Odisha suffered a four-wicket loss against a dominant Karnataka. Odisha, who started the day at 169 for four, were bundled out for 279 runs in the second innings and set a 127-run target for Karnataka. Pacers Abhimanyu Mithun and H.S. Sharath bagged five wickets each for Karnataka. It was a tricky chase for Karnataka and it was surely not the kind of chase they had expected as six wickets fell for 109 runs. But they scampered home to a win and six valuable points. In Group C, Goa and Jammu and Kashmir snatched improbable wins. At Porvorim in Goa, it was medium pacer Harshad Hanumant Gadekar’s maiden fifer in first-class cricket that guided Goa to a 49-run win over Tripura. Chasing a target of 256, Tripura looked well on course as they were well set at 120 for two. But a middle-order collapse saw Tripura lose eight wickets for 86 runs and gift Goa its first win of the season. Group A Mumbai 261 (Jaffer 139, SR Singh 4-35) and 381 for 4 dec (Tare 172, Rahane 133) beat Vidarbha 113 (Thakur 3-40) and 191 (Shrivastava 69, Thakur 4-48) by 338 runs. Karnataka 379 (Pandey 132, Rahul 67, Pradhan 3-66) and 130 for 6 (Pradhan 3-38) beat Odisha 226 (Mallick 98, Mithun 6-52) and 279 (Samantray 106, Mallick 50, Mithun 5-58, Sharath 5-80) by four wickets. Jharkhand 289 (Tiwary 91, Nemat 78, Bumrah 5-79) and 166 for 7 (Thakkar 50, Tiwary 50, Bumrah 3-27) drew with Gujarat 352 (Parthiv 189, Gohel 80, Quadri 4-73). Group B Services 304 (Tiwari 71, Swain 56, Desai 52, Lahiri 3-69, Dinda 3-97) drew with Bengal 431 (Das 165, Lahiri 108, Koteswar Rao 4-123) and 126 for 3 (Subhomoy Das 54, Arindam Das 50). Uttar Pradesh 226 (Choudhary 4-45) and 319 for 5 dec (Gupta 144, Parvinder 50 not out) drew with Rajasthan 185 (Saraf 56, Mishra 7-59) and 253 for 6 (Chetan Bist 61 not out, Bishnoi 53, Robin Bist 51). Tamil Nadu 565 for 8 dec (Abhinav 240, Karthik 133) drew with Saurashtra 581 for 6 dec (Pujara 269, Shah 195, Vasavada 70). Group C Goa 252 (Desai 102, Dutta 5-55) and 177 (Vaz 32, Acharjee 2-14) beat Tripura 174 (Abbas Ali 60, Gadekar 3-28) and 206 (Pawan 70, Gadekar 5-49) by 49 runs. Andhra 317 (Prasanth 86, Bharat 82) and 237 for 7 (Chiranjeevi 85, Sanklecha 3-52) drew with Maharashtra 440 (Jadhav 173, Motwani 95 not out, Vijaykumar 6-83). Jammu & Kashmir 377 (Ian Dev Singh 99, Parameswaran 4-52) and 337 for 2 declared (Rishi 160 not out, Rasool 100 not out) beat Kerala 307 (Jagadeesh 106, Prem 86) and 129 (Mudhasir 5-31, Beigh 3-47) by 278 runs. IANS