Salvi's five-wicket haul forces Andhra to follow-on

Medium pacer Avishkar Salvi's five-wicket haul brightened Mumbai's prospects of victory as Andhra Pradesh were reeling at 133 for seven in their second innings on the third day of the Elite Ranji Trophy Group-A match in Mumbai.

Andhra were forced to follow-on 256 runs behind Mumbai's first innings score of 403, after being shot out for 147 off 74.3 overs, with the young Salvi taking five wickets for 39 from 22 overs.

The visitors did not fare any better in the second essay either and were staring at a possible innings defeat.

Overnight batsmen R V Ch Prasad added just one run to his individual score before being caught by Robin Morris off Salvi in the slips. Fourteen runs were added before G Shankar Rao also departed, being caught by wicketkeeper Vinayak Samant off Morris for 14.

Then K Shabuddin (15) and Hemal Vatekar (18) added 31 runs for the eighth wicket in 9.5 overs before Salvi broke the partnership by having Vatekar caught by Morris in the slips.

Leg spinner Sairaj Bahutule accounted for Shabuddin, clean bowling him for 15 runs. First innings centurian and offie Ramesh Powar, who was introduced very late in Andhra first innings, had Mohammed Faiq caught by Bahutule in the deep for 11 while D Kalyan Krishna remained unbeaten on four.

In their second innings, Fayaz Ahmed (9) and Amit Pathak (16) put on 25 runs for the opening wicket before Mumbai skipper Paras Mhambrey, who brought himself on to bowl as the second change bowler, struck the first blow.

Baroda beat Orissa by an innings

Orissa hurtled to a humiliating defeat against Baroda, by an innings and 141 runs, on the third day of the four-day Elite group Ranji Trophy match at the Barabati stadium in Cuttack.

Asked to follow-on after the team collapsed for 131 in the first innings yesterday, Orissa began the day at 31 for two in their second knock and were bowled out for a paltry 135 soon after the lunch recess.

Except former skipper Sanjay Raul, who remained not out on 53 (204 min, 4X4), no other batsman could face Baroda medium pacers Rakesh Patel and Irfan Pathan with any confidence as wickets fell at regular intervals.

Patel and Pathan grabbed four and three wickets, conceding 47 and 46 runs respectively.

Opener P Jayachandra, who came out with Raul to face the daunting task of saving the game, perished soon after when medium pacer Sekhar Joshi had him castled for 22.

Barring wicketkeeper Goutam Gopal (18), none could stay for long even as Raul completed his fifty in 82 minutes.

Spinner Tushar Arothe polished off the tail, capturing two wickets in three overs.

Baroda claimed two points, their first in three matches while the hosts remained pointless after playing three games.

MP score innings and 38-run win over Bihar

A five-wicket haul by spinner Yogesh Golwalkar helped hosts Madhya Pradesh bowl out Bihar for 201 and register an innings and 38-run victory on the third day of their Plate 'B' group Ranji Trophy match at the Usharaje stadium in Indore.

With this win, Madhya Pradesh bagged three points.

Resuming at 42 for two, Bihar lost overnight not out batsman Mihir Diwakar early after he was trapped leg before by Sanjay Pandey. Diwakar made only six runs as the Bihar scoreboard then read 55 for 3.

Later, Tariqur Rehman (8) was also bowled by Golwalkar at the same score, putting Bihar under pressure. However, Rajiv Kumar tried his best to ease the pressure by scoring 49 runs inclusive of six boundaries. But he could not get able support from his other team mates.

Except Sumit Panda (46, 5x4, 2x6), no other Bihar batsman could contribute to the team's total and the entire team was bundled out for 201 runs, giving MP a huge victory.

Yogesh Golwalkar was the hero of the MP bowling, claiming five wickets for 57 runs off 23 overs.

Punjab bounce back against Assam

Brilliant hundreds by Pankaj Dharmani and Ankur Kakkar enabled Punjab to bounce back and set up an overall lead of 285 against Assam on day three of their four-day Elite group Ranji Trophy match at the Nehru stadium in Guwahati.

Having conceded a lead of 53 on the first innings, Punjab rallied from a precarious 3 for 36, to set up a strong second innings total of 338 which was made possible by Dharmani (121) and Kakkar (122) and their fourth-wicket record partnership of 214 runs, which came in 283 minutes off 72.5 overs.

Hosts Assam, who made 230 in their first innings, have their task cut out on the last day tomorrow, needing to score 286 for an outright victory.

Any hopes of the home team ending the Punjab innings early was brought to nought as the middle order duo played some exhilirating cricket on a pitch that tended to keep low.

Dharmani and Kakkar, who top-scored with 75 in the first innings, showed no sign of hesitancy that marked the Punjab batting so far and played shots all around to the dismay of the home crowd.

The Assam medium pacers, who looked menacing in the first innings, were rendered ineffective. Even Parag Das, who had taken five wickets in the first innings, was no exception.

It was, however, dependable left-arm spinner Sukhvinder Singh who drew first blood today when substitute Mrityunjoy snapped a smart catch at silly point to end the glorious innings of Dharmani, whose 121 came off 237 balls and was studded with 17 hits to the fence.

When Kakkar (122, 267 balls, 11X4, 2X6) departed 35 runs later, the visitors had already moved into a relatively safer position.

Hardworking Mark Ingty and Mrigen Talukdar then sliced through the lower order and the innings folded up at 338.

Fast bowler Ingty had rich a haul of four for 61 while Mrigen Talukdar took two for 64.

UP in trouble at 158 for 6

Uttar Pradesh wilted under pressure, losing five wickets after a good start to end the day on 158 for six wickets in their second innings against Tamil Nadu on the penultimate day of their four-day Elite Group B Ranji Trophy match in Chennai.

At close, Nikhil Chopra (10) and Javed Anwar (6) were at the crease.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu, overnight 238 for 9, were all out for 260 in 100 overs.

A W Zaidi, who had a five-wicket haul yesterday, added one more to his kitty, separating the 10th wicket pair of Tamil Nadu this morning. Dinesh Karthik remained unbeaten with a superb 88 (13 fours). He put on 50 valuable runs for the last wicket in 12 overs, before Balaji was out to Zaidi.

Playing their second innings with a lead of 44 runs, UP openers Anshul Kapoor and Jyothi Yadav appeared to be heading for big totals but the former holed out an easy catch in slips to S Ramesh off Vidyuth. He made 28 and added 68 runs in 32.4 overs for the first wicket.

Later, Yadav, who was shaping well, mistimed a cover drive off Sriram and Sharath took a diving catch. The opener, who made a fine 66, faced 151 balls and hit 11 fours.

The visitors collapsed at this stage, losing four more wickets while adding just 21 runs off 10 overs.

UP were left tottering at 142 for 6 as medium pacer Balaji took two wickets in one over without conceding a run. Sriram also claimed two wickets in 31 balls giving away eight runs. Saif (22), Rizwan (9), S Shukla (0) and Captain G Pandey (3) were the batsmen out.

Karnataka beat J & K by an innings and 321 runs

Karnataka inflicted a humiliating innings and 321-run defeat on Jammu and Kashmir on the penultimate day of the four-day Plate Group 'B' Ranji Trophy match in Bangalore.

After their batsmen did a splendid job in piling up 598 for three declared in the first innings, Karnataka bowlers were on a roll skittling out the visitors for 163 and 114 in their two innings.

Karnataka, who dominated right from day one, earned three points from this encounter.

Resuming at their overnight score of 77 for three, Jammu and Kashmir were all out for 163, with Dhruv Mahajan top-scoring with 37. Barring Ashwani Gupta, who made 24, none of the other J & K batsmen reached double figures.

Venkatesh Prasad, Sunil Joshi and Santosh K Vadeyaraj bagged three wickets apiece.

In their second knock, J & K fared even worse as their innings folded up for just 114.

Only Shammi Salaria offered some resistance with an enterprising knock of 53 (1x6, 10x4). Other batsmen failed to get going, as Prasad again took three wickets, while B Akhil and Vadeyaraj claimed two each.

Vidarbha in driver's seat against Goa

Amit Deshpande's unbeaten ton (157) put hosts Vidarbha in the driver's seat as they set Goa a target of 369 on the third day of their Plate 'B' group Ranji Trophy match at the VCA ground in Vidarbha.

Spinners Preetam Gandhe (4-76) and Madhusudan Acharya (4-77) shared the spoils for the home side while Shadab Jakati was the top scorer for Goa as he remained unbeaten on 80.

In their second essay, Vidarbha, who were 74 runs ahead, batted postively as openers Amit Deshpande (157 n.o) and P Vivek (29), put on 88 runs for the opening wicket.

Deshpande played his career-best innings and his knock was studded with 17 fours and one six. Alind Naidu also chipped in with a useful 45 in the middle.

Vidarbha declared their innings at 294 for three wickets off 74 overs, 40 minutes from close and also snapped up one wicket in Goa's second innings through Chandrashekhar Atram.

Maharashtra take charge

Maharashtra, with a 13-run first innings lead, were comfortably placed at 124 for two at close of the third day's play in the Ranji Trophy match against Haryana.

Resuming at the overnight score of 166 for six, the hosts were back to the pavilion after the addition of 119 runs, being 285 all out in reply to Maharashtra's first innings total of 298.

Shafiq Khan, who resumed at 81 was the first to go in the morning, scoring 107 with the help of 12 hits to the fence, at the total of 243.

Joginder Sharma was the other key Haryana batsman, scoring 75 runs, which had seven fours in it. The other batsmen, Gaurav Vashisht (17), Amit Suman (0) and Aparajit SIngh (0) failed to provide any support to Joginder as Haryana tried to cross Maharashtra's first innings total of 298. Haryana were back in the Pavilion at 285.

Maharashtra were well-placed in their second knock, being 124 for two, having lost the wickets of openers D S Jadhav (20) and Yogesh Pawar (29). H H Kanitkar (47) and A V Kale (20) were at the crease.

Mail Cricket Editor