Bengal romp to thumping ten-wicket win
A summary of matches on the first day of the latest round in the Ranji Trophy.
Cricinfo staff
03-Dec-2005
Bengal 211 and 69 for 0 (Subhomoy Das 46*) beat Delhi 148 and 131 (Lahiri 5-57) by 10 wickets
Scorecard
Scorecard
Bengal marched to a ten-wicket win on the third day of its Elite group encounter against Delhi, after Saurashi Lahiri, the offspinner, shot the hosts out for a paltry 131. Needing just 69 to win with more than a day to spare, Subhomoy Das and Arindam Das, Bengal's openers, knocked off the runs in 23.3 overs to take Bengal to its first outright win of the season. Delhi's batsmen failed for the second time in the match, unable to better their first-innings score of 151 and capitulated to Lahiri's probing spells either side of lunch. It was a poor batting effort from the hosts, with only Shikhar Dhawan, the opener, standing out with his 44 in 167 minutes. After nearly being relegated to the Plate Group last season, this has been a good turnaround for Bengal, with seven points - they claimed a bonus point today - in two matches.
Karnataka were 158 runs behind Mumbai's first-innings score of 344 when bad light forced the umpires to call stumps on day three at Bangalore because of bad light. Earlier, Vinit Indulkar's second first-class hundred and useful contributions from Ramesh Powar and Omkar Khanvilkar had taken Mumbai past Karnataka's 186. It was a consistent, if not threatening, display from Karnataka's bowlers, with each of the six bowlers picking up at least one wicket.
Railways 270 and 25 for 2 trail Tamil Nadu 371(Badrinath 106, Kumar 53) by 76 runs
Scorecard
Two quick wickets before stumps gave Tamil Nadu the upper hand against Railways in Delhi, after Subramaniam Badrinath's hundred and a dogged fifty from Hemanth Kumar took them to an imposing 371. Badrinath, 54 overnight, occupied the crease for 521 minutes and shared in a 113-run partnership with Kumar to wrest the initiative from Railways early in the day. Madan Yadav, the left-arm spinner, was the most successful Railways bowler with 4 for 94.
Bad light stopped play with 21 overs left on the third day at Anantapur, with Hyderabad 14 for 0, 153 runs ahead of Andhra's first innings 231. Ganeswara Rao top-scored with 65 but Kaushik Reddy, the opening bowler, claimed career-best figures of 4 for 43 to bowl Andhra out for an inadequate total.
Jacob Martin led from the front in scoring an unbeaten 224, his 23rd first-class century, and Connor Williams hit a fine 138 to take Baroda to 562 for 7 at stumps at Kanpur, 216 runs ahead of Uttar Pradesh with only a day to go. Martin's was a stellar effort as Baroda firmly wrapped their fists around a hapless Uttar Pradesh bowling attack to ensure that they could lose the match. Piyush Chawla, the legspinner, had figures of 4 for 177 from 46 overs, but Martin's stubbornness was the deciding factor on a day in which Baroda walked away with the honors.
Haryana 232 and 332 for 8 (Rawat 99, Rana 62, Gagandeep 5-109) lead Punjab 224 by 340 runs
Scorecard
Scorecard
Mahesh Rawat, Haryana's wicketkeeper, needed one more run to complete his maiden first-class hundred as Haryana finished the third day on 332 for 8, a lead of 341 over Punjab at Mohali. Rawat was aided in a 111-run stand for the eighth wicket by Sachin Rana as Haryana reached a comfortable position and gave themselves a strong case for victory on the final day. Gagandeep Singh, the medium-pace bowler, had the best figures of 5 for 109, but it was the only shining effort from an otherwise insipid bowling display from Punjab.
Vital contributions from the lower-order batsmen enabled Gujarat to gain the first-innings lead, all but ensuring themselves of two points in what should be a drawn encounter at Valsad. Suyash Burkul, the fast bowler, and Rohit Jadhav, the offspinner, shared six wickets but Maharashtra couldn't prevent Gujarat reaching 258, with Bhavik Thaker, Hemal Watekar and Salil Yadav adding 80 between them. Dheeraj Jadhav scored an unbeaten 54 as Maharashtra ended the day with a lead of 90, but they will require a minor miracle to pull off a win tomorrow.