Ranji Wrap: Superb Mathur bowls Rajasthan to win

Jaipur:  Rajasthan earned five points from today’s match, taking their tally to 10 points, rekindling their hopes for a knockout berth. A sensational display of pace bowling by Sumit Mathur (6/33) helped Rajasthan crush Saurashtra by 229 runs in their Ranji Trophy Elite Division match at the Sawai Man Singh stadium here. Chasing a victory target of 373, the visitors could not cope with the deadly bowling by veteran medium pacer Mathur and were bundled out for a modest 143 in their second essay in the Group A fixture. [caption id=“attachment_158439” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Akash Chopra (98; 208 balls, 12 x4, 1x6) fell two short of his hundred. Reuters”]  [/caption] Pankaj Singh (2/49) and Rituraj Singh (2/44) ably supported Mathur in the massive win. On the other hand, Saurashtra returned empty handed and are stranded at 11 points from six matches, making the race for knockout berths in the pool more interesting. Resuming their second innings at 169 for 1 today, Rajasthan declared at 241 for four soon after the former India opener Akash Chopra (98; 208 balls, 12 x4, 1x6) fell two short of his hundred and Hrishikesh Kanitkar (52) reached his half century. Skipper Jaidev Shah (35), Sitanshu Kotak (28 not out) offered brief resistance but that was never going to enough as Mathur ripped through the lower order. Rajasthan skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar was happy with the performance of his team. “Everything went according to our plans. It was also because our boys got a very good wicket to bowl on and they bowled at right areas. If we can manage an outright victory over Orissa in our last match we can hope for a berth in the knock out round,” he said. Rajasthan: 396 and 241 for 4 dec Saurashtra: 265 and 143 all out in 56.5 overs (Jaydev Shah 35; Sumit Mathur 6/33). Brief Scores Railways ensure three points as Orissa get relegated (New Delhi): Hosts Railways kept their chances alive of making it to the knock-out stage of the Ranji Trophy after ensuring three points against Orissa by virtue of first innings lead of 48 runs. Pacer Krishna Kant Upadhyay (2/69) and India discard Murali Kartik (3/73) grabbed four among the five wickets as Orissa were all out for 331 in pursuit of Railways first innings score of 379. Railways 379 & 113/2 (Shreyas Khanolkar 50*) Orissa 331 (Paresh Patel 95, Subhrajit Sahoo 70, Murali Kartik 3/74. KK Upadhyay 2/69) Mathur bowls Rajasthan to 229-run victory over Saurashtra (Jaipur): A sensational display of pace bowling by Sumit Mathur (6/33) helped Rajasthan crush Saurashtra by 229 runs in their Ranji Trophy Elite Division match at the Sawai Man Singh stadium. Chasing a victory target of 373, the visitors could not cope with the deadly bowling by veteran medium pacer Mathur and were bundled out for a modest 143 in their second essay in the Group A fixture. Rajasthan: 396 and 241/4 dec Saurashtra: 265 and 143 all out in 56.5 overs (Jaydev Shah 35. Sumit Mathur 6/33) Kaul hit 100 as Punjab vs Karnataka Ranji match ends in draw (Bangalore): Uday Kaul’s unbeaten century was the highlight of the final day’s proceedings in the drawn Elite Group A Ranji Trophy match between Punjab and Karnataka at the M Chinnaswamy stadium here. Thanks to the 76-run first innings lead, Punjab collected three points took their points tally to 15 points from six outings. They are placed third behind Karnataka (21) and Mumbai (20) in Group A. Punjab First Innings: 357 all out in 114.3 overs Karnataka First Innings: 281 all out in 92.4 overs Punjab Second Innings: 274/8 in 87.2 overs (U Kaul 100. NC Aiyappa 4/70) Karnataka Second Innings: 157/1 in 34 overs (R Uttappa 68, KB Pawan 57. R Sharma 1/42) Powar’s five for gives first innings lead to Mumbai (Lucknow): Spinner Ramesh Powar returned with a five-wicket haul to help Mumbai dismiss Uttar Pradesh for 312 and take a valuable 102-run first innings lead in the drawn Elite Group A Ranji Trophy match. Resuming at 166/2, Uttar Pradesh lost their opener Bhuvneshwar Kumar (62) in the third over, while overnight batsman Parvinder Singh (51) completed his fifty before being cleaned up by Powar as his second wicket. Mumbai first innings: 414 all out in 134.5 overs. Uttar Pradesh first innings: 312 all out in 95.5 overs (B Kumar 62, P Singh 51, S Raina 58. RR Powar 5/69) Mumbai second innings: 11/2 (Iqbal Abdulla 6, I Ahmed 1/2) Juneja scores double ton on debut but TN earn 3 points (Ahmedabad): Gujarat’s Manprit Juneja made his debut memorable with an unbeaten double century but Tamil Nadu still emerged with three points by virtue of their first- innings lead on the fourth and final day of their Ranji Trophy match. Thanks to Juneja’s monumental knock of 201 not out, Gujarat made a strong 539 all out after Tamil Nadu had piled up a mammoth 698 for eight declared at the at Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera. Tamil Nadu: 698/8 declared and 100 for no loss in 14 overs. Gujarat 1st innings: 539 all out (Juneja 201 not out, Priyank Panchal 80, Jesal Karia) Magnificent Manoj, gallant Veer ensure 3 pts for Bengal (Kolkata): Manoj Tiwary played the innings of his life while debutant Veer Pratap Singh showed maturity beyond his age as Bengal logged home three points against Delhi from their penultimate Elite Group B match of the Ranji Trophy at the Eden Gardens. Delhi 392 and 186/3 in 57 overs (Puneet Bisht 57, Mithun Manhas 52*, Yogesh Nagar 50*. Ashok Dinda 2/43) Bengal 397/9 declared after 124.4 overs (Manoj Tiwary 187, Veer Pratap Singh 15 not out. Pradeep Sangwan 5/107) PTI