Report

Warrier sets up big Kerala win

A wrap of the third day of the eighth round of Ranji Trophy matches in Group C

Kerala 325 (Jagadeesh 138, Fernandez 111, Nadeem 4-90) beat Jharkhand 120 (Sreesanth 4-28) and 170 (Jaggi 90, Warrier 6-44) by an innings and 35 runs
Scorecard
Medium-pacer Sandeep Warrier skittled Jharkhand's top-order with a six-wicket haul in two matches to help Kerala register an innings win in Mallapuram. Jharkhand, after conceding a 205-run lead in the first innings, made steady progress on the third morning to get to 85 for 2. But Warrier removed Sunny Gupta and Saurabh Tiwary off consecutive balls and later, added two more wickets to leave Jharkhand reeling on 134 for 6. There wasn't much resistance after that as Chovvakkaran Shahid ran through the tail. No. 3 Ishank Jaggi watched the wickets tumble from the other end and was the last batsman to be out - to Warrier - as Kerala collected seven points for the big win and drew level with Jharkhand on the points table.
Himachal Pradesh 189 (Bhalaik 40, Dayal 6-50) and 32 for 1 trail Jammu & Kashmir 175 (Malik 5-41) and 248 (Rasool 83, Dayal 71, Malik 3-50) by 203 runs
Scorecard
Resilient half-centuries by Parvez Rasool and Ram Dayal turned a dire situation for Jammu and Kashmir at the start of the day into a position of advantage against Himachal Pradesh. J&K were effectively 5 for 3, but Rassool stitched two important partnerships - 73 for the fourth wicket and 61 for the sixth - to push the team ahead. In what has been a low-scoring match till now, the two fifties by Rasool and Dayal were also the highest scores by any batsmen and took J&K to 248, setting Himachal a target of 238. When Himachal came into bat towards the end of the day, Dayal made immediate impact, removing Himachal's top-scorer from the first innings, Aatish Bhalaik, in his second over. The game is set nicely with Himachal needing another 203 runs to win, and J&K nine wickets away from what would be their third win.
Andhra 249 (Muzumdar 108*, B Sumanth 57, Arup Das 4-61) and 10 for 0 trail Assam 394 for 5 dec (Tarjinder 103*, Roy 77, Jadhav 60) by 135 runs
Scorecard
Assam took a healthy first-innings lead against Andhra after Tarjinder Singh scored his second century of the season. Assam had started the day 83 runs behind Assam's total and with eight wickets in hand, they were set to take the lead. However, Assam were given a brief hope when they picked up the two overnight batsmen in the third and fourth over of the morning. It turned out be a mirage as they had to wait 66 overs for their next wicket. By that time, Assam were ahead by 95 runs and they declared after adding another 50. Andhra's batsmen safely negotiated the remaining eight overs.
Goa 64 for 4 (Murasingh 2-8) trail Tripura 278 (Dey 76, Chowdhary 57, Gadekar 4-72, Bandekar 4-90) by 214 runs
Scorecard
Tripura bagged four Goa wickets towards the end of the day after adding 108 runs to their overnight and set sights on a first-innings lead. Nirupam Sen Chowdhary scored a half-century to take the team total to 278 after Abhijit Dey, unbeaten on 75 at the end of the second day, scored only a run this morning before edging the ball to the wicketkeeper. Chowdhary found support in the lower order and with Bunti Roy, who scored 39, he added 58 runs for the ninth wicket.
In response, Goa lost Swapnil Asnodkar and Manvinder Bisla to Manisankar Murasingh with only 12 runs on the board. Their situation was further compounded by the loss of two more wickets by the end of the day, still 214 runs behind.