Report

Nayar rearguard takes Mumbai past 400

A round-up of Ranji Trophy Group B matches on October 23, 2015

Baroda 133 for 1 (Devdhar 84*) trail Mumbai 447 (Iyer 173, Nayar 89, Yadav 68, Herwadkar 67, Argal 4-67) by 314 runs
Scorecard
Mumbai overcame a collapse early on the second morning to amass a big total after Abhishek Nayar made a counterpunching half-century in the company of the lower order.
Nayar, coming in at No.8, added 50 runs in 9.3 overs for the ninth wicket with Shardul Thakur, who made a 31-ball 24. After Thakur was run out, Nayar and Vishal Dabholkar, who contributed five runs, put on 70 runs for the last wicket to push the score past 400.
Resuming on 317 for 3, Mumbai had lost five wickets for 10 runs inside 11 overs. After Shreyas Iyer was run-out adding six runs to his overnight score of 167 in the eighth ball of the day, seamer Ajitesh Argal picked up three of the four wickets to fall to reduce Mumbai to 327 for 8.
In their reply, Baroda, despite losing Monil Patel early on, remained steady with Kedar Devdhar and captain Aditya Waghmode sharing an unbroken 113-run stand for the second wicket.
Nayar admitted later that the collapse was "freakish", and that he couldn't really explain how it happened. "I think in the morning the ball was pretty new and they were bowling quite well, but there were no demons in the pitch," Nayar told ESPNcricinfo.
"Then Shreyas got run out and after that and I don't know how to explain what happened. The ball was moving a bit, so initially I took my time. Once we played off that first spell after that we took our chances pretty well."
Nayar said he communicated his plans to the lower order and farmed the strike. "After Shardul got out, I was taking a chance every over. I was trying to face four to five balls every over and Vishal was doing a good job fending away the one or two balls. [Playing strokes] was the only way to get some runs," he said.
Uttar Pradesh 170 & 39 for 3 trail Andhra 297 (Prasanth 67, Bharat 62, Praveen 4-86) by 88 runs
Scorecard
Andhra gained ascendancy over Uttar Pradesh in Ongole by securing a first-innings lead of 127 runs and then reducing the visitors to 39 for three in their second innings.
Starting the day on 77 for no loss, Andhra lost opener Srikar Bharat, who was caught behind by Eklavya Dwivedi off Praveen Kumar. Andhra, however, didn't lose momentum and kept stringing together handy partnerships with their middle-order batsmen contributing 20s and 30s. Praveen finished with four for 86.
Uttar Pradesh, in their second innings, made slow progress, scoring at less than two runs an over and losing three wickets inside 16 overs.
Railways 168 for 4 (Wakaskar 93) trail Gujarat 387 (Panchal 141, Kalaria 80, Parthiv 58, Anureet 4-91) by 219 runs
Scorecard
Late strikes helped Gujarat gain a slight edge over Railways in the race for the first-innings point in Delhi, after the visitors' lower-order rallied around Rush Kalaria's unbeaten fifty to take the team total close to 400.
After Anureet Singh had overnight batsman Manpreet Juneja lbw off the third ball of the day, and then bowled RP Singh five overs later, Gujarat were reduced to 296 for 8. But, Kalaria, who came in at the fall of the sixth wicket, raised stands of 51 and 40 with Mehul Patel and Jasprit Bumrah for the ninth and tenth wickets respectively. Gujarat's innings came to an end when Anureet trapped Bumrah lbw to claim his fourth wicket.
Railways' reply, led by Saurabh Wakaskar's half-century, seemed headed in the right direction before RP Singh had Wakaskar lbw in the 50th over. From 168 for 1, the hosts slumped to 168 for four as they lost Faiz Ahmed and nightwatchman Anureet in the space of two overs.
Punjab 182 for 2 (Jiwanjot 64, Uday Kaul 55*) trail Madhya Pradesh 370 (Shrivastava 131, Ladda 5-110, Pargat 3-108) by 188 runs
Scorecard
Half-centuries from Jiwanjot Singh and Uday Kaul guided Punjab's strong reply after Madhya Pradesh posted a sizeable total in Patiala. Madhya Pradesh's bowlers had the going tough as the hosts build steady partnerships throughout their innings.
Manan Vohra and Jiwanjot were separated after 58 runs were added for the opening wicket when Vohra was bowled by offspinner Jalaj Saxena. The visitors managed a breakthrough only after 25 overs when Jiwanjot was trapped lbw by Ankit Sharma. Jiwanjot and Uday Kaul had added 94 runs by then.
In the morning, resuming on 251 for 5, Aditya Shrivastava and Rameez Khan kept the runs coming. While Shrivastava was dismissed by legspinner Sarabjit Ladda, Rameez went on to bring up his fifth first-class fifty. Madhya Pradesh's lower-order, however, didn't fire, as after Rameez's dismissal they lost their last three wickets for 25 runs. Ladda finished with a five-for.