Jyoti Yadav propels Uttar Pradesh to knock-out stage
A round-up of the Ranji Trophy one-day matches that took place on February 15
Cricinfo staff
16-Feb-2006
An unbeaten 122 from Jyoti P Yadav set up Uttar Pradesh's 57-run win against Railways at the KL Saini Ground in Jaipur. Yadav's innings spanned just 120 balls and included 12 fours and two sixes. He added 133 for the third wicket with Arvind Kapoor, who smashed 72 from 67 balls, and pushed the score to 283 for 5. Railways' chase began to gather momentum before losing three wickets for 10 runs (86 for 4). Shreyas Khanolkar fought back with 57 but Avinash Yadav (4 for 56) ran through the middle order and restricted them to 226 for 9 in 50 overs. With this win, UP have topped the Central Zone in the league stage, and have entered the knock-out phase. Railways, who have come in the second place in the zone, follow UP into the next round.
Vidarbha hung on by the skin of their teeth to clinch a thriller by one run against Madhya Pradesh at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Chasing 243 to win, MP were in dire straits at 28 for 4 before B Tomar (74) and S Masood (56) led the recovery with a 100-run stand after Abbas Ali chipped in with 45. But after Tomar and Masood fell, the chase lost steam and the tail only managed to push the score to an agonising 241 for 9, two runs short. Sandeep Singh collected figures of 3 for 38. Shalabh Shrivastava led the way for Vidarbha, after losing the loss, scoring 61. The only other significant contribution was Samir Khare's 41 as Vidarbha were dismissed for 242.
Rajiv Kumar played a captain's innings of 94 to see Jharkhand through tense moments and secured a one-wicket victory against Tripura at the Tata Digwadih Stadium in Dhanbad. Chasing a modest 228, Jharkhand kept losing wickets at one end while Rajiv held up the other. Rajiv's was a patient knock that took 128 balls while including 10 fours and a six. Mihir Diwakar struck a crucial 25 in a 33-run stand for the eigth wicket with Rajiv that took them closer to the win. In their innings, a steady fall of wickets ensured that Tripura could not take advantage of winning the toss. Bappa Das top-scored with 57 but his was the only score above 30 in their eventual total of 227 for 9.
Riding on a strong allround performance, Assam breezed to a five-wicket win against Orissa at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Dhanbad. After winning the toss, Assam's bowlers didn't allow the batsmen to settle by picking up wickets regularly. S Tarafdar took 2 for 29 and Mrigen Talukdar claimed 3 for 44 as Orissa were held to 190 for 9. Assam's openers, Chandan Rawat (57) and P Aziz (56), virtually sealed the win with a 132-run opening stand that set up the platform for them to finish on 194 for 5.