Ranji Trophy round-up: Defending champions Karnataka knocked out; Assam make it to quarter-finals

As the final round of matches in Ranji Trophy came to an end, the biggest upset of the season was defending champions Karnataka failing to qualify from the group stages.

Vidarbha, Bengal, Assam qualified from Group A with 29, 28 and 26 points respectively.

Madhya Pradesh’s net run rate (Minus 0.059) was marginally superior to Gujarat’s (Minus 0.092) which was enough to pilot the former into the quarter finals along with Mumbai and second-placed Punjab (26 points) from Group B.

Jharkhand and Saurashtra are the teams from Group C to make it to the quarters.

The knock out quarter finals are to be held from February 3-7, 2016.

Detailed reports below

Defending champs Karnataka knocked out of Ranji Trophy

Pune: Defending champions Karnataka crashed out of the Ranji Trophy after losing to Maharashtra by 53 runs in their final league match of the season on Friday.

Karnataka, resuming the day at 61/1, ended their second innings at 239 all out after having set a 293-run target. The winners of the prestigious competition for the last two years were on the backfoot ever since their first innings folded up for 180, in reply to Maharashtra’s 212.

Maharashtra were anyway not in the race for the quarterfinals but they certainly played party poopers to Karnataka, who finished fifth in the points table with two wins, a loss and five draws from eight games. The home team finished seventh with a win, couple of losses and five draws in eight games.

The famed Karnataka batting failed to deliver in the crunch situation and there was not much positive apart from the contributions from Robin Uthappa (61) and wicket-keeper CM Gautam (65 not out), who ran out of partners in the end. Maharashtra medium pacers Anupam Sanklecha and Nikit Dhumal did the maximum damage, snaring up four and five wickets respectively.

Brief scores: Maharashtra 212 and 260 Karnataka 180 and 239 all out in 72 overs (Robin Uthappa 61, CM Gautam 65 not out; Anupam Sanklecha 4/64, Nikit Dhumal 5/78).

Bengal, Assam qualify for Ranji quarterfinals

Guwahati: Bengal and Assam qualifed for the knockout stage of the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament after grabbing three and one point respectively from their drawn Group A match.

While Bengal had already ensured their place in the quarterfinals after they forced Assam to follow on, the hosts also managed to sneak into the knockout stage after denying the visitors an outright win, finishing at 143 for 8 on the fourth and final day.

Bengal and Assam are occupying the second and third place with 28 and 26 points respectively in the Group A points table, headed by Vidarbha with 29 points.

Assam, who had conceded a massive 301-run first innings lead to Bengal, resumed their second innings at 72 for 2 but they found the going tough as wickets fell at regular intervals.

However, the hosts still managed to save the match, courtesy a patient half-century by opener Pallavkumar Das. He hit five fours in his 182-ball innings.

Bengal off-spinner Aamir Gani conjured up hopes of an outright win when he returned with a five-wicket haul but the visitors could not provide the finishing touch as the match ended in a draw.

Skipper Gokul Sharma (10) was the first to be dismissed on final day when he was cleaned up by Mukesh Kumar. Arun Karthik then returned to be pavillion when he was bowled by Gani in the 56th over.

In the 63rd over, Assam lost half their side when Tarjinder Singh too was dismissed by Gani with Pankaj Shaw taking the catch. One over later, Das was caught by Manoj Tiwary off Pragyan Ojha.

Amit Sinha and J Syed Mohammad then dug their heels and saw off 9.2 overs, scoring only three runs, while Amit and Wasiqur Rahman played the next 9.3 overs putting up just 14 runs to save the match.

Brief Score: Bengal: 444/6 declared Assam 1st innings: 143 in 54.4 overs Assam 2nd innings: 143-8 from 84 overs (PP Das 55; AA Gani 5/62)

Vidarbha advance to Ranji quarters

Nagpur: Left-arm spinner Ravi Jangid bowled Vidarbha to the knockouts with career-best figures of 7/59 in his second innings, which took his wickets tally in the match to 11, and helped the home team defeat Haryana by an innings and 31 runs in their Group A Ranji Trophy match.

Jangid, who had finished with figures of 4/44 in the first innings, bowled for 41 overs in the second essay for his seven-wicket haul. He was ably assisted by spinner Akshay Wakhare (2/105), who bowled 31.1 overs for two wickets.

In reply to Vidarbha’s massive first innings score of 504, Haryana were earlier bundled out for 241 and were subsequently asked to follow on.

Resuming on 66 for two in their second innings while following on, Haryana started off well with overnight batsmen Mohit Hooda and Rohit Sharma playing responsible knocks. While Hooda contributed with 38, Rohit scored his maiden first-class century but lack of support from the middle and lower order left the team in tatters.

Rohit was the ninth batsman to be dismissed after a fine 107 off 241 deliveries that included 10 fours. In the end, Haryana were bowled out for 232.

Brief scores: Vidarbha: 504 for seven decl. Haryana: 241 & 232 (f/o) 103.1 overs (Rohit Sharma 107; Ravi Jangid 7/59). Points: Vidarbha 7, Haryana 0.

Mumbai top Group B, Gujarat knocked out

Mumbai: Mumbai grabbed a handy 110-run first innings lead over Gujarat before their concluding Group B Ranji Trophy game ended in a tame draw with the hosts topping the group with 35 points.

Gujarat picked up one point from the drawn encounter to take their tally to 24, the same as Madhya Pradesh.

But MP’s net run rate (Minus 0.059) was marginally superior to Gujarat’s (Minus 0.092) which was enough to pilot the former into the quarter finals along with Mumbai and second-placed Punjab (26 points) from the group.

When play started today with Gujarat on 355 for 5 chasing Mumbai’s imposing first innings total of 531, the onus was on Bhargav Merai (unbeaten 150 overnight) to try and take the visitors past the 40-time champions’ huge score.

But Merai fell for 166, after adding 16 more runs to his last evening’s score, and the slim hopes of Gujarat of grabbing the first innings lead vanished.

Merai, who was let off when on 0 yesterday off his own bowling by Shardul Thakur, repaid the compliment and the bowler accepted the catch today to end his marathon 331-minute knock in which he hit 16 fours.

Shardul later finished with fine figures of 6 for 107.

With a handy lead in the bank, Mumbai batted their way to 227 for 6 in their second innings before stumps were drawn for the last time.

Left-handed opener Akhil Herwadkar followed up his first innings 192 with a breezy knock of 41 in 81 balls with six fours while Nikhil Patil remained unbeaten on 44.

For Gujarat, off-spinner Rujul Bhatt grabbed four for 76 after left arm spinner Axar Patel dismissed the two openers to end up with 2 for 85.

Brief scores: Mumbai 531 and 227 for 6 (A Herwadkar 41, S Iyer 37, N Patil not out 44; Axar Patel 2 for 85, Rujul Bhatt 4 for 76) versus Gujarat 421 (P Panchal 36, B Merei 166, R Bhatt 31, Axar Patel 88, R Powar 34; S Thakur 6 for 107, B Alam 2 for 93).

Match drawn. Mumbai 3 points. Gujarat 1.

UP, Baroda ends Ranji campaign with a draw

Greater Noida: Already out of quarterfinal race, Uttar Pradesh and Baroda finished their campaign at the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament with a tame draw in a group B match at the Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground.

Aditya Waghmode hit a century, while Deepak Hooda (86) cracked a half-century as Baroda ended their second innings on the fourth and final day at 258 for three in 68.4 overs in reply to Uttar Pradesh’s first innings total of 524. Resuming their first innings at 466/7, Uttar Pradesh added another 98 runs with Umang Sharma (215) completing his double century.

Overnight batsman Praveen Kumar (83) was the first to be dismissed in the 139th over, while Sharma too was sent back into the hut by Pandya with Irfan Pathan taking the catch. Saurabh Kumar (21) was the last batsman to be dismissed. In their second essay, Baroda had a good start with openers Kedar Devdhar (41) and Aditya Waghmode (100) adding 97 runs. Once Devdhar was cleaned up by Saurabh Kumar in the 39th over, Hardik Pandhya also was dismissed cheaply by Chawla.

However, Waghmode and Hooda shared a 113-run partnership to ensure that there are no more hiccups. Hooda was trapped infront of wicket by Kuldeep Yadav in the 66th over.

From Group B, Mumbai, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh made it to the quarterfinals, while Uttar Pradesh ended at the fifth place with 21 points.

Brief Score:

Baroda 1st innings: 321 Uttar Pradesh 1st innings: 524 all out in 152.1 overs (Umang Sharma 215; Munaf Patel 2/42). Baroda 2nd innings: 258 for 3 in 68.4 overs (A Waghmode 100; S Kumar 1/56).

Saurashtra outplay J&K to seal quarters berth

A sensational seven-wicket haul by spinner Kamlesh Makvana helped Saurashtra crush Jammu and Kashmir by an innings and 63 runs and seal their quarterfinal berth in the Ranji Tropy cricket tournament on Thursday.

Ian Dev Singh’s 179-ball 127 went in vain as Makvana wrecked havoc on the hosts on the third day, returning with figures of 26.4-5-100-7 at the Gandhi Memorial Science College Ground.

Resuming at 491/9, Saurashtra ended their first innings at a mammoth 497 in 126.2 overs after Jaydev Unadkat was dismissed by M Mudhasir.

In reply, J&K had a shaky start as Unadkat dismissed Umar Nissar (6) in the 7th over and then Makvana got rid of other opener Pranav Gupta (39) in the 28th over after he shared 52 runs with singh.

Skipper Parvez Rasool (0) was next to go as he was caught by Barot off Makvana. SP Khajuria (8) too was sent packing in the 36th over by Makvana.

Singh then added another 52 runs with Amir Sofi (20), before sharing a 78-run stand with Asif Khan (29) as J&K crossed the 200-mark. However, Singh too was dismissed in the 78th over with CS Jani taking the catch off DA Jadeja.

Once Singh was gone, Z Sofi (4) and VK Dogra (2) failed to reach double figures. M Mudhasir (23) and Sameer Ali (26 not out) fiddled around for sometime before the former was dismissed.

Brief Score:

Jammu & Kashmir 1st innings: 138

Saurashtra 497 (S Jackson 121; Z Sofi 3/51)

Jammu & Kashmir 2nd innings: 296 allout in 86.4 overs (ID Singh 127; KR Makvana 7/100)

Tiwary’s double ton props Jharkhand

Saurabh Tiwary struck a double hundred before Jharkhand declared their first innings at 388/8 and reduced Hyderabad to 169/6 on the third and penultimate day of their Ranji Trophy group C cricket match on Thursday.

Overnight 366/6, Jharkhand allowed Tiwary to touch the double-hundred mark before declaring their innings this morning. Tiwary remained unbeaten at 209, which came off 283 deliveries and included 27 fours and four sixes.

In reply, Hyderabad, who were bowled out for 145 in their first essay, were once again reeling. B Sandeep was the lone batsman to make a notable contribution with his 58-run knock, which included eight fours.

Brief Scores:

Jharkhand: 388/8d

Hyderabad: 145 and 169/6 in 77 overs (B Sandeep 58, Rahul Shukla 2/28).

Tripura forced to follow on against Services

Faced with a mammoth Services total of 512, Tripura’s batting collapsed and the hosts were forced to follow on after being dismissed for 229 in their first innings on the third and penultimate day of their Ranji Trophy Group C cricket match on Thursday.

Overnight 45/1 in their first innings, Tripura rode on Saurabh Das’ 115-ball 53 and some other decent middle-order contributions to make 229 but that was not enough to save them from follow on.

Brief Scores:

Services: 512

Tripura: 229 and 9/0 (f/o) in 3 overs

PTI