Ankit Sharma leads MP to thumping innings win
A round-up of the Ranji Trophy Group A matches on January 31, 2015
ESPNcricinfo staff
31-Jan-2015
Madhya Pradesh 371 (Saxena 89, Ojha 85, Bundela 79, Datey 56*, Dayal 5-65) beat Jammu & Kashmir 177 (Aditya 64, Ankit 4-49) and 97 (Ankit 5-35, Saxena 5-35) by an innings and 97 runs
Scorecard
Scorecard
Madhya Pradesh completed a crushing innings and 97-run victory over Jammu & Kashmir in under three days in Indore. The result was accelerated by left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma, who claimed career best match and innings figures. It took Ankit four balls on the third morning to claim the two remaining wickets in J&K's first innings, wrapping them up for 177 to give MP a massive first-innings lead of 194. Devendra Bundela enforced the follow-on and in their second innings, J&K got only halfway to making MP bat again, being rolled for 97. Once again Ankit played a central role with the ball, claiming career best figures of 5 for 35 to add to a first-innings tally of 4 for 49. He was ably supported by offspinner Jalaj Saxena, who claimed identical figures: 5 for 35.
Karnataka 719 for 9 dec (Rahul 337, Kazi 117*, Gopal 90, Praveen 5-88) and 8 for 0 lead Uttar Pradesh 220 (Asnora 70, Shreyas 4-51) by 507 runs
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Scorecard
Karnataka tightened their grip on Uttar Pradesh, bowling them out for 220 on day three in Bangalore to claim a mind-boggling 499 first-innings lead. UP had begun the day on 10 for 0, and any hopes they had of batting out time in the game took a hit in the fourth over of the morning as Karnataka captain Vinay Kumar removed Tanmay Srivastava cheaply. From there on, legspinner Shreyas Gopal - who had also fired with the bat - and seamer S Aravind took over, accounting for the rest of the top and middle order between them. The pair shared seven wickets, ensuring UP ended the day completed deflated.
Bengal 268 (Tiwary 68, Goswami 62, Easwaran 57) and 187 for 5 (Saha 39*) lead Railways 302 (Rawat 71, Nandi 53, Lahiri 5-99) by 153 runs
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Scorecard
Railways entered day three needing another 50 runs with four wickets in hand to claim the lead against Bengal and, though the hosts struck early at Eden Gardens, cameos from Railways tail helped them fulfil that objective. Overnight half-centurion Mahesh Rawat kept his end going till the lead was well in sight, while precious runs came from Nos. 9, 10 and 11: Prashant Awasthi made 25, Avinash Yadav an unbeaten 12 and Anureet Singh, 26. Bengal offspinner Saurasish Lahiri finished with a five-for, the 11th of his lengthy career. In their second innings, all Bengal's top and middle order got into double digits, but none could carry on, meaning they ended the day effectively 153 for 5 with an interesting final day on the cards.
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