Baroda take thriller on 17-wicket day

Baroda 324 (Wakaskar 100, Waghmode 77, Rayudu 54, Mishra 5-97, Mohit 4-86) and 133 for 9 (Mohit 5-50) beat Haryana 295 (Dalal 104, Utkarsh Patel 5-83) and 160 by one wicket
Scorecard

In perhaps the most thrilling day of the season, Baroda's last pair put on 25 runs to consign Haryana to their third defeat in three matches. It was a day which began with seemingly little chance of a result as Haryana were still two down and looking to set a target. That quickly changed as Haryana's famously fragile batting buckled once again, to slide from 127 for 2 to 160 all out. Overnight batsman Abhimanyu Khod was run-out on the second over of the day, after which the wickets tumbled rapidly.

If Baroda thought they had a straightforward chase ahead, given the target of 132, they were in for a surprise as Haryana were in no mood to give up. Kedhar Devdhar, who is yet to make a half-century this season, fell on the first ball of the innings, and only one of top six reached double-digits as quick bowler Mohit Sharma ran through the top order. They still had their regular opener,Saurabh Wakaskar, and Gagandeep Singh, who has proved useful with the bat this season. The pair added 37 - the biggest stand of the innings - for the seventh wicket, but both were dismissed in the space of six runs, leaving Baroda at 91 for 8, still 41 away. When legspinner Amit Mishra had Murtuja Vahora bowled the score became 108 for 9, leaving Haryana sensing victory.

The last-wicket pair of Bhargav Bhatt and Utkarsh Patel, neither of whom have much batting credentials, then dashed Haryana's hopes. With the match on the line, No. 11 Bhatt even hit a six and Baroda soon completed only the 14th one-wicket victory in Ranji history.

Odisha 202 (Niranjan Behera 61, Akshay 4-40) and 255 (Samantaray 86, Vinay 7-58) beat Karnataka 213 (Uthappa 43) and 179 (Uthappa 45) by 65 runs
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After waiting four years to get their first Ranji win since 2008, Odisha needed only a week to get their second. They upset Karnataka by 65 runs at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and jumped to the top of the table in a tightly contested group. Karnataka began the day on 43/1 needing 202 more. They lost Ganesh Satish early on, and were further set back by the dismissal of their two most well-known batsmen, Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey, in the space of an over. Stuart Binny resisted with a 42, but Odisha's Biplab Samantaray, whose 86 in the second innings proved pivotal, removed both Binny and Karnataka captain Vinay Kumar off successive deliveries. There was little assistance for CM Gautam from the lower order, and he was bowled by Alok Sahoo to confirm the defeat. Odisha now have 13 points, while Karnataka have only five from four matches.

Maharashra 282 (Awate 126, Atitkar 45, Wagh 5-23) and 261 for 7 dec (Awate 112, Motwani 67) drew with Vidarbha 266 (Upadhyaya 77, Fazal 59) and 105 for 1 (Urvesh 54*)
Scorecard

The highlight of a dull final day in Nagpur was Virag Awate, the 31-year-old opener from Maharashtra, becoming only the second player to score twin hundreds on debut in the Ranji Trophy. Awate was the mainstay of the innings for a second time in the match, guiding Maharashtra to 261 for 7, setting Vidarbha an unlikely target of 278 in less than half a day. Awate was helped by Rohit Motwani's half-century but no other batsmen reached 20. Vidarbha reached 103 for 1 in 29 overs, thanks to Urvesh Patel's unbeaten half-century after which the match was called off. Maharashtra get three points for the first-innings lead while Vidarbha had to be satisfied with one point.