Three centuries in Haryana second innings

Hosts Tripura secured two points by virtue of their first innings lead against Haryana in the four-day Ranji Trophy Plate match at the Maharaja Bir Bikram stadium in Agartala on Friday.

Three Haryana batsmen -- Chetan Sharma, Ishan Ganda and Joginder Sharma -- slammed stunning centuries in the second innings to take the score to a huge 437 for five.

Chetan Sharma and Ishan Ganda added 220 runs for third wicket in the first session before Sharma was dismissed for 116 runs (4x15, 6x2) off Sonu Sharma.

Ishan Ganda and Joginder Sharma thereafter played aggressively and took the score to 416, when Ishan (142, 12X4) was trapped leg before wicket by Timir Chanda.

Joginder entertained the crowd with some quick fire shots. He slammed three huge sixes and 10 boundaries in his knock of 139.

Brief scores:

Haryana (1st innings): 200

Tripura (1st innings): 288

Haryana (2nd innings): 437 for five (C Sharma 116, I Ganda 142, J Sharma 139; T Chanda 2/57, V Jain 2/70).

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Kotak, Bhatt miss centuries

Jharkhand earned two points by virtue of the first innings lead in their Ranji Trophy Plate Group 'A' match against Saurashtra, which ended in a draw in Rajkot on Friday.

Conceding a first innings lead of 84 runs, Saurashtra, who had resumed at the overnight score of 13 for no loss, scored 279 for loss of six wickets in 95.4 overs.

After losing four wickets quickly, with just 82 on the board at one stage, Saurashtra's experienced batsmen, Sitanshu Kotak and Prakash Bhatt, rescued the side, adding 178 runs for the fifth wicket.

However, both the batsmen could not complete what would have been well-deserved centuries and were out in nineties, with Kotak scoring a neat 98 (12 fours off 214 balls) and Bhatt 93 (11 fours in 163 balls).

Jharkhand medium pacer S Panda and S Khan took two wickets each for 46 and 84 runs respectively.

Brief scores:

Saurashtra (1st innings): 274

Jharkhand (1st innings): 358

Saurashtra (2nd innings): 279 for 6.

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Oasis, Anathapadmanabhan save Kerala

Captain Sunil Oasis and veteran leg spinner K N Anathapadmanabhan put on 105 runs in an

unbroken seventh-wicket stand to help Kerala salvage a draw against Himachal Pradesh in a Ranji Trophy cricket Plate A match in Palakaad on Friday.

Oasis (82 not out) and Ananthapadmanabhan 42 (not out) took Kerala to 290 for 6 in their second innings when a draw was agreed upon by both the captains.

Himachal Pradesh, having secured the first innings lead, got two points while Kerala drew a blank.

Resuming at the overnight score of 23 for 1, Kerala received an early jolt when they lost C M Deepak (8). But debutant Jagadeesh (11) and Sreekumar Nair (62) steadied the ship, adding 44 runs for the third wicket, before Jagadeesh was out.

Ajay Kuduva (21) added 34 runs for the fourth wicket with Sreekumar, but Kuldeep Diwan got Kuduva edging to Sandeep Sharma as the total reached 106/4.

Oasis and Sreekumar then batted sensibly and added 60 runs for the fifth wicket when spinner Vishal Bhatia trapped Sreekumar leg before.

Kerala will now host Orissa from November 25 to 28.

Brief scores:

Himachal Pradesh (1st innings): 465

Kerala (1st innings): 215

Himachal Pradesh (2nd innings): 187 for 7 decl.

Kerala (2nd innings):  290 for 6 (Sreekumar Nair 62, Ananthapadmanabhan 42 not out, S Oasis 82 not out, Kuldeep Diwan 2/47).