A summary of Ranji Trophy matches played on the fourth and final day on Tuesday.
Karnataka registered their second outright win this season, beating Odisha by an innings and 64 runs on the fourth and final day of their Group A Ranji Trophy match in Mysore on Tuesday.
With this win Karnataka secured seven points, and are among the top contenders to qualify for the knockout stage with 21 points to their credit.
Stuart Binny and Shreyas Gopal, ably supported by Vinay Kumar, helped Karnataka skittle out Odisha for 104 runs in their second innings under 37 overs.
Binny claimed four wickets for 34 runs and Gopal bagged three wickets for 43 runs, while Kumar ended with two for seven off seven overs and Udit Patel picked up one wicket.
Batting first, Odisha put on 232 all out in their first innings with Govinda Poddar scoring 153 runs after he had smashed 15 boundaries and a six off 230 balls.
In reply, Karnataka declared their first innings at 400 for nine after Robin Uthappa scored his second century of the season with a superb 148 runs. He had scored his first ton against Rajasthan in the previous match.
Karnataka opener Mayank Agarwal and Karun Nair, also came good with their bat, scoring 78 and 73 runs, respectively.
Nair and Uthappa took the game away from Odisha when they stitched a 169-run partnership for fourth wicket and helped hosts post 168-run first innings lead.
Resuming at the overnight score of zero for one, Odisha started on a disastrous note, losing first innings centurion Poddar, who was caught by Abhishek Reddy off Kumar for seven.
Binny turned the tide in Karnataka's favour after he claimed two wickets in consecutive deliveries.
After the fall of Ranjit Singh, no batsman held the crease and with Karnataka bowlers, especially Binny and Gopal, wrecking havoc.
Anurag Sarangi was the top scorer for Odisha with 44 runs with six boundaries, scored off 75 balls.
To the dismay of Odisha, they lost four batsmen -- Rajesh Dhuper, Singh, Biplab Samanataray and Basant Mohanty -- without opening an account.
UP concede lead to Mumbai in drawn game
Mumbai: Uttar Pradesh were bowled out for 440, chasing hosts Mumbai's huge first innings total of 610 for 9 declared, before the Ranji Trophy Group B match ended in a draw with the visitors making 140 in the second essay after following on.
Mumbai got three points by virtue of taking the first innings lead and remained on top of Group B with 20 points while UP had 14, including one from this game, and are now sixth in the nine-team group.
Starting the day at the overnight 350 for five, trailing by 260 runs, UP lost both their overnight not out batsmen Eklavya Dwivedi (66) and Piyush Chawal (88) in the morning session and their slim hopes of gaining the first innings lead fizzled out.
Medium pacer Abhishek Nayar dismissed both the batsmen before left arm spinner Vishal Dabholkar polished off the tail to bring the UP first innings to an end and give Mumbai a huge lead of 170 runs.
Nayar and Dabholkar finished with four wickets apiece before their captain Aditya Tare asked UP to follow on with a view to try and gain an outright victory.
But the ploy did not work as UP recovered from the loss of an early wicket (Dwivedi for 6) through an unbeaten second wicket partnership of 128 runs between Himanshu Asnora (68 not out) and Umang Sharma (62 not out), who both compiled their second half centuries of the game.
Play was called off by mutual agreement before the start of the mandatory overs.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai: 610 for 9 declared
Uttar Pradesh: 440 (H Asnora 92, U Sharma 53, Sarfaraz Khan 44, E Dwivedi 66, P Chawla 84; V Dabholkar 4 for 116, A Nayar 4 for 63) and 140 for 1 (H Asnora not out 68, U Sharma not out 62; V Dabholkar 1 for 30).
Points: Mumbai 3; UP 1.
Ojha stars in Bengal's first win of season
Kolkata: Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha spun Bengal to their maiden victory this season with a career-best match haul of 11 wickets as the hosts outplay Vidarbha by 105 runs in the Group A Ranji Trophy cricket match on Tuesday.
Chasing a stiff 297, Vidarbha almost saw the day through with a valiant 96 from Ganesh Satish (11x4, 1x6) but the new Bengal recruit trapped him LBW with a ball that stayed low en route to 4-60 in the second innings to make it 183 for nine in the last ball of 82nd over.
With light fading fast and Bengal needing the last wicket, two catches were dropped to add more drama in the fag end of the fourth and final day.
But before it could go out of their hands Veer Pratap Singh (3-23), who had given the first two breakthroughs in the day, sealed the win dismissing Ravikumar Thakur to spark early Diwali celebrations in the hosts’ camp.
Having defeated the team, which was placed second before the match, Bengal thus opened up the table to jump to top four position and brighten their last-eight hopes.
Bengal are now ahead of Vidarbha and behind third-placed Assam on net run-rate as all the three teams have 16 points, while Delhi (24) and reigning champions Karnataka (21) occupy top two in the standings.
Man of the Match Ojha made all the difference in the bowling unit, en route to his career-best 11-118 in Ranji Trophy.
In first-class cricket, this was his third 10th wicket match haul and first in Ranji Trophy with the other two coming in Test and a county for Surrey.
Brief Scores:
Bengal: 334 and 164
Vidarbha: 202 and 191 all out in 91.1 overs (Ganesh Satish 96, Subramaniam Badrinath 31; Pragyan Ojha 4-60).
Points:Bengal 6, Vidarbha 0.
Assam thrash Haryana by six wickets
Rohtak: Amit Verma (51) and Gokul Sharma (19) took their time before knocking off the required 38 runs on the final day as Assam recorded a comfortable six-wicket win over Haryana in their Ranji Trophy Group A match, on Tuesday.
It was a comeback-win for Assam as they had conceded a first innings lead of 48 runs but their bowlers brought them back by bundling out the rivals for just 111 in their second essay.
Amit and Gokul remained steady when they came out this morning chasing a victory target of 160 runs. They batted slow, taking 16.1 overs to score the required 38 runs, but ensured that there is no twist in the tale.
Brief Scores:
Haryana: 168 and 111 (H Rana 27;A Das 6/39, K Das 4/48)
Assam: 120 and 122 for 4 in 38 overs.(Amit Verma 51 not out, KB A Karthik 48; A Hooda 2/62).
Andhra-TN match ends in draw
Chennai: After two days had been washed out owing to rain, Andhra and Tamil Nadu shared a point each after their Group B Ranji Trophy match ended in a draw at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday.
When the stumps were drawn on the fourth and final day, Tamil Nadu were 164 for seven in 37 overs.
Opting to bat after winning the toss, Andhra were all out for 203 in 77.2 overs on the first day of the game.
Baba Indrajith top-scored for the hosts with a 51-ball 43.
Tamil Nadu now have 16 points from five matches, while Andhra totalled 10 from six games.
Tamil Nadu take on Uttar Pradesh at Kanpur in the next round.
All-round Axar helps Gujarat bag bonus point against Baroda
Valsad: A strong all-round show by Axar Patel helped Gujarat thrash Baroda by an innings and 46 runs to bag a bonus point in the Group B Ranji Trophy cricket encounter on Tuesday.
After a gutsy 81 in Gujarat's only batting outing, Axar bagged three and four wickets respectively in the first and second Baroda innings to lead the rout.
Starting the day on 81 for four while following-on, Baroda crashed to 207 all out, with Axar and off-spinner Rujul Bhatt bagging four wickets apiece.
Skipper Ambati Rayudu (43) and Hardik Pandya (43) fought hard but the rest of the batting just fell apart.
All-rounder Irfan Pathan did made his presence felt with a gutsy 58 in the first innings and also a six-wicket haul in the Gujarat innings.
Gujarat are placed fourth in the points table led by Mumbai. They have 16 points from five games with two wins and a loss.
Baroda on the other hand are languishing at the last-but-one place in the nine-team table with three losses and a single win in six matches.
Brief Scores:
Gujarat: 505
Baroda: 252 and 207 all out in 73.4 overs (Ambati Rayudu 43, Hardik Pandya 43; Axar Patel 4-71, Rujul Bhatt 4-48).
Points: Gujarat 7, Baroda 0.
