Railways 23 away from victory; TN sneak first-innings lead
A round-up of the third-day action from the Group A matches in the sixth round of the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy
ESPNcricinfo staff
15-Nov-2016
File photo - Deepak Hooda narrowly missed out on his fourth century of the season as Baroda inched towards defeat against Railways • PTI
Railways were within 23 runs of beating Baroda in Nagpur, as they ended the day 90 for 2 chasing 113.
Having conceded a first-innings lead of 127, Baroda were bowled out for 239 in the second innings. They began day three on 27 for no loss and lost opener Aditya Waghmode in the second over. Railways then inflicted two instances of wickets in consecutive overs - first in the 16th and 17th, and then in the 34th and 35th, either side of a 64-run fourth wicket partnership between Irfan Pathan (32) and Deepak Hooda (98), to reduce Baroda to 119 for 5.
Hooda then put on 60 for the sixth wicket with Pinal Shah (32), and batted with the tail to stretch the score 239, before he was the last man dismissed, two short of his fourth hundred of the season. The last three wickets also fell in consecutive overs. Avinash Yadav took 3 for 50 to add to his five-wicket haul in the first innings.
Railways' chase began with a 77-run opening stand before first-innings centurion Saurabh Wakaskar fell for 45. They lost their second wicket, of Ashish Singh, off the last ball of the day. Shivakant Shukla was unbeaten on 36.
Suryakumar Yadav was dismissed in the nineties for the second time in the match as he helped Mumbai set Uttar Pradesh 295 to win in Mysore.
Suryakumar hit ten fours and a six in his 90, after coming in at 60 for 3, with Mumbai leading by only 68. He put on crucial partnerships - 81 for the fifth wicket with Abhishek Nayar (39), 62 for the seventh with Siddhesh Lad (35), and 57 for the eighth with Shardul Thakur (48) - before he fell to left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar (3-48), with the score on 279. Mumbai were bowled out for 286.
UP's chase began with the loss of Tanmay Srivastava, who fell for a single-digit score once again. Shivam Chaudhury, returning to the opening spot, scored an unbeaten 28 and took UP to 43 for 1 at stumps with Samarth Singh batting on 7.
An unbroken last-wicket stand of 38 helped Tamil Nadu sneak past Bengal's first-innings score of 337 and earn the lead in Rajkot.
Beginning the day with the score 60 for 1, TN's overnight pair of Abhinav Mukund (45) and Kaushik Gandhi (65) stretched their second-wicket partnership from 55 to 100 before Abhinav was run out. Pragyan Ojha then removed Gandhi after he had brought up his second first-class fifty. At 141 for 3, Dinesh Karthik came in and put on 58 with B Indrajith (34) before batting with the lower middle order to score 80 before being the seventh batsman dismissed, with the score on 281. Medium-pacer Sayan Ghosh then removed Aushik Srinivas and Aswin Crist (36) in consecutive overs to reduce TN to 310 for 9, and give Bengal a scent of the first-innings lead.
But they couldn't get past K Vignesh (30*) and T Natarajan (10*), who batted together for 9.3 overs and put on 38 to take Tamil Nadu to 348 for 9 at stumps.
Samit Gohel and Parthiv Patel added an unbroken 143 for the third wicket to put Gujarat 278 ahead of Madhya Pradesh in Nagothane.
Madhya Pradesh lost three wickets within the first six overs of the day, falling to 183 for 8 after starting the day 162 for 5. Rush Kalaria took two of those wickets, and eventually finished with 4 for 72. MP's last two wickets put on 32 and 37 respectively to lift them to 252, cutting Gujarat's eventual first-innings lead to 50.
Gujarat scored 228 for 2 in the 70 second-innings overs they faced on day three, with Gohel unbeaten on 93 and Parthiv on 80. Medium-pacer Ishwar Pandey took both wickets.