Himachal seamers make Tripura follow-on
A round-up of the action from the third day of the first round of the Ranji Trophy Plate League 2011-12
ESPNcricinfo staff
05-Nov-2011
Group A
Four-wicket hauls by Himachal Pradesh's Mohinderraj Sharma and Rishi Dhawan forced Tripura to follow-on on the third day in Agartala. Tripura began the day on a solid 91 for 1, but lost three quick wickets for just two runs. Subhrajit Roy went on to score 75 before he was dismissed by Mohinderraj. The left-arm seamer claimed three more wickets to finish with 4 for 47. Wicketkeeper Vinayak Samant made a fighting 67 but it wasn't enough to take his team past the follow-on mark. Batting again, Tripura lost Roy to a 26-ball duck.
Half-centuries by captain VA Jagadeesh and Abhishek Hegde led Kerala's steady reply to Vidarbha's 557 in Nagpur. The two openers shared a stand of 156 before Jagadeesh fell 12 short of his century. Hegde made 76 before he was caught off the bowling of legspinner Sairaj Bahutule. Kerala were set back towards the end of the day when they lost two quick wickets. Sachin Baby and Sony Cheruvathur were at the crease at stumps.
Gonnabattula Chiranjeevi's blistering unbeaten century gave Andhra Pradesh control of their game against Services in Delhi. Chiranjeevi made 105 from just 110 balls, smashing nine fours and two sixes along the way, to set up Andhra's declaration at 307 for 9 and leave Services needing 433 to win. The hosts successfully negotiated the five overs before the close of play, but they still trail by 418 and will be hard pressed to bat out the final day and save the game.
Group B
An unbeaten century by Vaibhav Naik and a fifty by Saurabh Bandekar helped arrest a middle-order collapse to keep Goa afloat against Maharashtra. Goa slipped from 59 for 2 to 67 for 5 before Bandekar joined Naik to rescue the hosts in Porvorim. Bandekar made 80 before he was bowled by Akshaya Darekar. Naik remained unbeaten on 137 with Robin D'Souza for company. Goa ended the penultimate day trailing by 115 runs with three wickets in hand.
Hyderabad held the upper hand in Uppal as they finished with 416 and had Jharkhand trailing by 217 runs with five wickets in hand. Syed Quadri, overnight on 77, went on to make 105 before he was bowled by Shankar Rao. The right-arm seamer Rao finished with 4 for 69. Ishank Jaggi led Jharkhand's reply with 81. Lalith Mohan, the left-arm spinner, was among the wickets, claiming Jaggi to end the day with figures of 3 for 45.
No play was possible on the third day of the Jammu & Kashmir v Assam match in Srinagar.