Ranji round 5, day 3: Kamboj takes perfect 10; Shardul shines for Mumbai

Group A:

Odisha have recorded their first win of the season by beating Maharashtra in a clash of two teams struggling for consistency and striving to be in the mid table, not even knockouts contention. The win must be that much more special for Odisha because they made just 200 in the first innings, a lead of just 38. The door was ajar for Maharashtra to make a comeback but Sumit Sharma crushed those hopes with a five-for to set up a target of 130, which they somehow managed to achieve courtesy captain Govinda Poddar's 48.

Spinners Mahesh Pithiya and Ninad Rathva picked up six wickets apiece (in the first and second innings respectively) as Baroda thrashed Meghalaya to top the standings. With four wins and 27 points in five games, they will be comfortably ahead of nearest rivals J&K and Mumbai even if they secure outright wins in their respective matches.

An unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 92 between Vivrant Sharma and Abid Mushtaq helped J&K pull off a tight four-wicket win over Tripura. Vivrant was unbeaten on 60; it was only his third first-class half-century. The win takes J&K to second on the points table as they now have three wins in five games. Baroda hold the top spot and a four-point lead.

Himachal have beaten Puducherry with a bonus point. It's their third win which takes them to No. 2 in the standings. Puducherry fell behind in the very first session when they were bundled out for 85. While they fared a lot better to make 334 in the second innings, they'd ceded too much ground.

Punjab have kept their flagging knockout hopes alive by securing their first outright win of the season. They've beaten Bihar by an innings, needing all of 85 overs with the ball to pick up 20 wickets. Punjab are now fourth in the pool with 11 points, although that could change based on how some of the other results in the group pan out, most-notably UP-Karnataka and MP-Bengal.

Plate League:

Snehal Kauthankar and Kashyap Bakle hit record-breaking triple centuries en route the second-highest stand in first-class cricket history as Goa crushed Arunachal for their fifth win in five games; Arunachal slumped to their fifth loss in as many matches.

Andhra's Shaikh Rasheed, 20, converts his maiden first-class century into a double-ton. Hanuma Vihari, back leading Andhra again, bags a golden duck, his second of the season

Mohammed Shami struck late in the day as Bengal have MP 150 for 3 at stumps, with the target still 188 away. Rajat Patidar holds out hope for MP, he's unbeaten on 32. He's batting alongside Shubham Sharma. Earlier in the day, Shami hit a breezy 36, along with Saha who struck 44, to swell Bengal's lead.

In Lucknow, Karnataka's quest for full points have been thwarted by UP as Madhav Kaushik brought up his second century of the season. UP are five down but their lead has crossed 100. They started their second innings 186 runs in deficit.

Despite Anshul Kamboj's 10-wicket haul, Haryana look set to concede the first innings points to Kerala in Lahli.

In the plate league, it was another fun day out for Agni Chopra who struck his 9th first-class hundred in his 19th innings, but Mizoram look set to concede the first innings points to Nagaland, who were fuelled by Chetan Bisht's unbeaten 304.

Daya Sagar from Kotla: Ayush Badoni was handed Delhi's captaincy mid-season, and he has celebrated his elevation with a well-made century. He came to the crease when Delhi were struggling at 61/2 after Jharkhand posted 382. He saw Anuj Rawat, Himmat singh and debutant Mayank Gusain fall cheaply, but didn't let that affect him as he played positively and aggressively to complete a 119-ball century. Delhi are 144 runs behind but only have five wickets in hand.

On the face of it, J&K v Tripura is unlikely to be high on the popularity charts if it comes down to a poll on Ranji match-ups one is most looking forward to. But this season, both sides have shown lots of pluck. That they're both in knockouts contention five rounds into the competition in what is a very tricky pool tells you of how well they've played.

J&K are second in group A with two wins in four games. Tripura are fifth, but so tight is the table that a win here will see them jump to second. It's that tight and that tense.

As things stand, J&K need 65 runs. Tripura need four wickets. Two of those - allrounder Vivrant Sharma and Abid Mushtaq - have added 25 already. There's still Auqib Nabi to come, and he can wield the willow to good effect. But it's a pressure game. Ability counts, sure, but it's about who holds their nerve from this point in.

Shardul Thakur is fighting his way back from a foot surgery that may have set his career back. A key driver in Mumbai's march to the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy title, it has taken him a while to get into full rhythm this season.

But with the conditions aiding him, and the ball zipping around at the Palam, he has stood up and delivered key blows as Mumbai eye six points against Services that will go a long way in sealing their knockouts berth with two games still remaining.

His 4 for 46 in the first innings limited Services to 240 in the first innings. With a 48-lead behind him, he has removed the cream of the Services batting to leave them in strife at 146 for 6, effectively 98 ahead.

No conversation around the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy is possible without talking of Shardul's heroics at the Gabba. It's a pity that the selectors have moved on from him so fast, but performances like these will definitely keep him in the conversation.

In Indore, Mohammed Shami has hit a crucial 26-ball 37 to help Bengal set Madhya Pradesh a steep fourth-innings chase on a surface that continues to keep the fast bowlers interested.

Resuming on 170 for 5, Bengal stretched their second innings to 276 with Wriddhiman Saha offering stodgy resistance in making a 115-ball 44. The only half-centurion of the innings was allrounder Writtick Chatterjee, who made 52. Shami came in to bat with Bengal 219 for 8, and hit two fours and two sixes in his entertaining knock.

As I type, he's out with the new cherry. Can he build on his four-for? Ajay Ratra, the national selector, is in attendance as is the NCA physio Nitin Patel who will submit a report on Shami to the Indian team management after this match.

History for Haryana's Anshul Kamboj, who becomes only the third bowler in Ranji history to take all 10 wickets in an innings. He achieved this feat when he dismissed Kerala's Shoun Roger on the third day of their fifth round fixture in Lahli. The other two bowlers to achieve this feat are Premangsu Chatterjee in 1956-57 and Rajasthan's Pradeep Sunderamin 1985-86.

Three other Indians have achieved this feat in first-class cricket:
Subhash Gupte in 1954-55
Anil Kumble in 1998-99
Debasis Mohanty in 2000-01

Kamboj began the day needing two wickets to achieve this feat. And he needed just three overs to take them as he finishes with figures of 30.1-9-49-10. He wasn't even born when Haryana won their first (and only) Ranji Trophy crown in 1990-91. And he didn't know until his debut in 2022 what it took to succeed in first-class cricket. Two years on, Kamboj has built on a superb 2023-24 season, in which he was Haryana's leading wicket-taker during a victorious Vijay Hazare campaign.

His career continues to flourish. Here's Kamboj in a chat with ESPNcricinfo from earlier this season, during the Duleep Trophy.

He moved away from Karnataka last season after being left out of the squad across formats. At Vidarbha, he was a guaranteed starter, and he laid the base for a successful stint by top-scoring with 690 runs during their run to the final in 2023-24.

He's back again with the same hunger. Having had a county stint in England with Northamptonshire for whom he featured seven championship games in April-May this year. Not part of the IPL, Karun spent the early part of the summer in conditions he described as "the coldest ever" he has played in. He hit 487 runs in 11 innings, including a best of 202 not out.

Back now at the Ranji Trophy, he missed the previous game, but has now brought up his first century of the season, against Gujarat, to give Vidarbha a great chance of taking the first-innings lead at the very least.

It's not like Karun has had a bad season so far - the hundreds hadn't come but he kept getting starts, like the 85 in the previous innings against 85. Here, with his side needing a big one, he has stepped up along with debutant Danish Malewar to ground Gujarat's bowling.

Vidarbha trail by just 76 with eight wickets remaining. The third-wicket stand between Nair and Malewar is worth 217 and counting.

A number of young batters are beginning to make a mark from Tamil Nadu.

B Sai Sudharsan has made all the right noises over the past two years, as have Pradosh Ranjan Paul and B Indrajith (yes, he's 30). Add another name to that list: 18-year-old C Andre Siddarth, who has had a fantastic initiation into first-class cricket this season.

The nephew of former TN captain and current national selector S Sharath, Siddarth has already hit four half-centuries this season, including 78 in the ongoing fixture against Railways in Ahmedabad. Siddarth's half-century is one among four in the innings as Tamil Nadu have opened up a massive lead that they hope could be match-winning.

It's been an exciting week for the youngster who grew up admiring Ricky Ponting and M Vijay. Two days ago, he was picked in the India Under-19 squad for the Asia Cup that's slated to be held in UAE later this month.