Ranji Trophy semis: Unadkat's brilliance takes Saurashtra into final; Tare, Yadav put Mumbai on the brink

Suryakumar Yadav, Aditya Tare put Mumbai in driver’s seat Cuttack: Suryakumar Yadav and Aditya Tare helped Mumbai amass a 429-run lead against Madhya Pradesh on day three of the Ranji Trophy semifinal on Monday. Yadav (97*) and Tare (90*) had taken Mumbai to 285 for three in their second innings after the bowlers, led by Balwinder Sandhu, did well to dismiss Madhya Pradesh for 227 in their first essay. [caption id=“attachment_2627500” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Aditya Tare. BCCI[/caption] Forty-time champions Mumbai, who had made 371 in their first innings, are well on their way to add to their record tally in the five-day semifinal. Madhya Pradesh, beginning the day at 197 for five, lost Naman Ojha, who was out for for an overnight 79 . Ankit Dane (44) too could not add much to his overnight score as the last five wickets fell for 30 runs. Medium pacer Sandhu starred with five wickets and was well supported by Abhishek Nayar (3/56). Mumbai then made Madhya Pradesh pay with the bat. Shreyas Iyer made an entertaining 58 off 46 balls before Yadav and Tare forged an unbeaten 190-run stand for the fourth wicket. Yadav collected 18 fours and Tare 15 as they put their team in the driver’s seat. Brief scores: Mumbai 371 and 285/3 (Aditya Tare 90, Suryakumar Yadav 97). Madhya Pradesh 227 all out. Saurashtra thrash Assam by 10 wickets, enter Ranji final Vadodara: Left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat wreaked havoc with the ball as Saurashtra dished out a dominant performance to thrash Assam by 10 wickets and sail into the final of the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament. Such was Saurashtra’s dominance that they wrapped up the five-day match inside three days with Assam batsmen falling flat in front of the opposition bowling unit led by Unadkat, who returned with impressive match figures of 11 for 112 runs. [caption id=“attachment_2627504” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Jaydev Unadkat. BCCI[/caption] Unadkat, who picked up six wickets in Assam’s first innings, followed it up with yet another stellar show scalping five more victims in the second essay by giving away just 45 runs. Resuming at the overnight score of 254 for five Saurashtra added 99 more runs before being bowled out for 353 in their first innings in reply to Assam’s 234. Centurion Cheteshwar Pujara (126) managed to add just 10 runs to his overnight score while Chirag Jani made 43 and Deepak Punia was unbeaten on 42. For Assam, pace duo of Krishna Das (3/80) and Arup Das (3/105) shared six wickets between them. But it was all Unadkat and his pacer partner Hardik Rathod’s show as the hunted in pair to bundle out a sorry-looking Assam for just 139 runs in their second essay, thereby setting up an easy target of 21 runs for Saurashtra to seal the affair which they did woth aplomb. Despite the loss, it was a creditable performance for Assam this season as the North Eastern side made it to the last four stage of Ranji Trophy for the first time in the history of the tournament. Brief Scores: Assam: 234 & 139 all out 39.1 overs (Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad 39; Jaydev Unadkat 5/45). Saurashtra: 254 & 24 for no loss in 3.1 overs. PTI