Report

Services through; Jharkhand, Andhra fight for final place

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

Jharkhand 120 (Suraj Yadav 6-43) and 35 for 0 need another Services 183 (Chatterjee 97, Ajay Yadav 5-30) and 152 (Ajay Yadav 6-43)
Scorecard
The Yadavs continued to dominate the Group C match between Services and Jharkhand. Ajay Yadav followed his first-innings five-for with 6 for 43 in the second innings to give Jharkhand a shot at victory, which can get them a place in the quarters. In the innings between the two, Services' Suraj Yadav took six for himself.
Services began the day at 32 for 2 after the Delhi fog had delayed the start yet again, but kept losing wickets regularly. However, Services also would have found out during the day that neither Assam nor Andhra can win their match outright, which ensured their qualification for the quarter-final.
Jharkhand, though, had to do all the running, and running they did. Captain Shahbaz Nadeem provided Ajay full support with four wickets of his own. Bowling Services out for 152, Jharkhand were left with a target of 218. They knocked off 35 of those without losing a wicket by stumps.
Goa 381 (Desai 105, Kamat 70, Pinto 61, Arup Das 5-83) and 11 for 0 lead Assam 366 (Sibsankar Roy 87, Pallavkumar Das 70) by 26 runs
Scorecard
For the first half of the day, Assam looked good to take a first-innings lead over Goa's 381 and remain in contention for the quarter-finals, but they lost their last eight wickets for 124 runs to fall short by 15.
Assam were third before this round started, but needed at least three points to stay alive. At 134 for 1 at the start of the day, they looked in control, a position they only solidified by reaching 208 without any further loss. However, when Sibsankar Roy fell to make it 242 for 3, a collapse began.
Only Dheeraj Jadhav and J Syed Mohammad arrested the slide to add 52 for the sixth wicket, but the end of that partnership kickstarted another glut of five wickets for 50 runs.
Andhra 329 (Muzumdar 146, Sahabuddin 49) and 38 for 0 lead Kerala 311 (Samson 122, Jagadeesh 117, Vijaykumar 4-77, Atchuta Rao 4-78) by 56 runs
Scorecard
Andhra fought hard to attain the first-innings lead despite centuries from VA Jagadeesh and Sanju Samson, but it turned out they didn't need to. Towards the end of the day, in Guwahati, Assam dropped out of the race by failing to take a first-innings lead.
Andhra's only competition now is Jharkhand, but these three points will only take them level with Jharkhand should the latter win their match in Delhi. Andhra stand no chance of winning that tie, because Jharkhand will have posted three outright wins as opposed to Andhra's one.
This was a strange innings from Kerala, one that revolved around the new ball. The first one claimed three wickets for 80, after which Jagadeesh scored his fourth century of the season to go with Samson's second. The second new ball, though, wreaked havoc, ended 199-run partnership, and then ran through the rest for the addition of just 31 runs. DP Vijaykumar and T Atchuta Rao took four wickets each.
In a bid to take the Jharkhand result out of the equation, Andhra added 38 runs in six overs before stumps, but it is unlikely they will risk the points already earned by doing anything fancy on the final day.
Tripura 226 for 5 v Jammu & Kashmir
Scorecard
In the stop-start, inconsequential match Jammu & Kashmir and Tripura, only 85 overs have been bowled over three days. Tripura have moved sedately to 226 for 5.