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Report

Suresh takes Assam close to win over Kerala

A round-up of the second day's play of the third-round matches of the Ranji Trophy Plate League, 2007-08

Cricinfo staff
24-Nov-2007
Kerala 85 (Suresh 4-23, Goswami 4-24) and 11 for 0 need 255 more to beat Assam 198 and 152 (Suresh 45, Nair 3-11, Yohannan 3-46)
Scorecard


Sanjay Bangar scored 64 to put Railways in a commanding position against Haryana © AFP
Although Kerala dismissed Assam for 152 in the second innings, they needed another 255 to register an improbable outright win. Earlier, resuming at 23 for 5 in reply to Assam's 193, Kerala could manage a paltry 85 in the first innings. At stumps, they were left needing three times that total to win the match. Dhiraj Goswami and S Suresh took four wickets each to dismiss Kerala in the first innings.
Suresh followed his half-century and four wickets in the first innings with another crucial 45, otherwise Assam would have struggled to get past the 100-run mark in the second innings. Tinu Yohannan and Sreekumar Nair took three wickets each.
Jharkhand 105 and 278 for 7 (Vardhan 79, Tiwary 64*) lead Jammu & Kashmir 133 by 250 runs
Scorecard
The second day at Jammu was a more subdued one as only seven wickets fell, as opposed to 20 on first day. Jharkhand turned the tables on Jammu & Kashmir and took control in their second innings as they stretched their lead to 250 after having fallen behind by 28 runs in the first innings.
Manish Vardhan, the Jharkhand captain, gave them a solid start and scored 79. Vardhan and Subroto Ghosh put on 107 runs for the first wicket. Sourav Tiwary followed on Vardhan's good work as he finished the day at 64 not out.
Railways 272 for 5 (Bangar 64, Pagnis 59, Rana 3-40) lead Haryana 193 by 79 runs
Scorecard
It was a long and hard day for the Haryana bowlers as they managed five Railways wickets for 192 runs. Sanjay Bangar followed up his four-wicket haul with 64 runs, which along with Amit Pagnis' 59, took Railways past Haryana's 193 and set them up for a big first-innings lead. Sanjib Sanyal and Siddharth Joshi chipped in with handy contributions of 40 and 36 respectively.
For Haryana, Sachin Rana bowled 20 overs for 40 runs and took three wickets.
Goa 145 for 3 (Asnodkar 64*, Pitre 2-27) trail Madhya Pradesh 475 (Jadhav 93*, Ali 88, Bandekar 6-144) by 330 runs
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The Madhya Pradesh tail frustrated Goa to put up a challenging total of 475 before Goa made a good start to finish the day at 145 for 3.
Ashutosh Jadhav, who was left stranded at 93 not out, was the star for MP as Goa struggled to get quick wickets. MP's last four wickets managed 216 runs. For Goa, Saurabh Bandekar took his overnight tally of eight no-balls to 13 and added two more wickets to finish with 6 for 144.
Swapnil Asnodkar held the Goa innings together with an unbeaten 64 as they put up a spirited reply.
Services 40 for 6 (Parmar 4-14) trail Gujarat 437 (Niraj Patel 145, Thaker 121, Mohanty 5-113) by 397 runs
Scorecard
Niraj Patel and Bhavik Thaker, the overnight Gujarat batsmen, and Siddharth Trivedi, their No. 10, punished the Services bowler before offspinner Mohnish Parmar ripped through the Services' batting line-up to reduce them to 40 for 6.
Thaker, who resumed on 35, went on to score his second first-class century. And after Ashish Mohanty pulled the game back to reduce Gujarat to 325 for 8, Trivedi's 53-ball 51 took Gujarat to 437. Mohanty finished with 5 for 113.
Services struggled in reply, scoring just 40 in 26.4 overs and losing six wickets. Much depends on their captain Yashpal Singh, who was unbeaten on 7 at stumps.
Tripura 80 for 5 (Acharya 3-19, Sandeep Singh 2-19) trail Vidarbha 315 (Chanda 4-68) by 235 runs
Scorecard
Vidarbha lost their last six wickets for 83, but took five Tripura wickets for 80 runs to finish the second day in a commanding position.
Scoring wasn't a priority for Tripura as their 80 runs came off 45 overs. Madhusudan Acharya and Sandeep Singh did the damage with three and two wickets respectively. They both bowled 15 overs and conceded 19 runs.
Earlier, Tripura had done well to pull things back after an ordinary first day in the field. Timir Chanda, who bowled 13 no-balls, and Vineet Jain, their new-ball bowlers, toiled hard and ended up with four and three wickets respectively.