Lahiri's seven-for helps Bengal win thriller
A round-up of the third day's play from the final round of Group B matches in the Ranji Trophy 2013-14
ESPNcricinfo staff
01-Jan-2014
Bengal 130 (Rangarajan 6-30) and 139 (Laxmi Shukla 46, Rahil 6-64) beat Tamil Nadu 85 (Nandi 4-9) and 180 (Karthik 62, Lahiri 7-62) by four runs
Scorecard
Scorecard
Offspinner Saurasish Lahiri's seven-wicket haul set up a thrilling four-run victory for Bengal against Tamil Nadu, helping the team all but qualify for the knockout phase. Unless Baroda manage to miraculously beat Rajasthan in Jaipur, Bengal's berth is safe. Bengal's exact position in the Group B standings will be determined after the end of the UP-Railways game in Lucknow.
Starting the third morning at 102 for 1, it took just four overs for TN's chase of 185 to start unraveling as Lahiri trapped S Badrinath in front for 21. Lahiri followed that up soon after with the big wicket of Dinesh Karthik, who was out for 62 off 148 balls. TN were comfortable in spite of Karthik's wicket with the score at 125 for 3. The match turned on its head, however, in the twelve-over period between the 61st and 73rd overs, as TN lost six wickets for 27 runs to slide from 131 for 3 to 158 for 9.
Lahiri took five of those wickets, dismissing Baba Indrajith, L Balaji, Vijay Shankar, Ramaswamy Prasanna and Rahil Shah. Arnab Nandi further set TN back, dismissing Baba Aparajith, who had compiled a patient 33.
With a knockout place on offer, TN's last-wicket pair of Malolan Rangarajan and Aushik Srinivas dug in, with the latter utilising a dropped chance. But with TN five runs away from the target, Writtick Chatterjee had Rangarajan out lbw for 11 to complete an edge-of-the-seat finish.
Railways 460 for 4 (Ghosh 167*, Rawat 163*) v Uttar Pradesh
Scorecard
Scorecard
Uttar Pradesh's bowlers went wicketless on the third day as Railways' batsmen, Arindam Ghosh and Mahesh Rawat struck up hundreds to push their side's score to a commanding 460 for 4 in Lucknow.
While UP's chances of qualifying for the knockouts received a small boost due to Baroda's performance against Rajasthan, their bowlers couldn't manage a single breakthrough, as Ghosh and Rawat stretched their stand to 294 runs. While Rawat finished unbeaten on 163 off 222 balls with 23 fours and two sixes, Ghosh was not out on 167 off 354 balls with 21 fours and a six.
Read the full report of Rajasthan v Baroda here: Rajasthan on top despite Gagandeep seven-for