Ranji round-up

A round-up of the fourth and final day's play of the Ranji Trophy Super League matches on Thursday

Mumbai defeat Rajasthan by 237 runs

Hosts Mumbai began their Ranji Trophy campaign on a winning note as they trounced Rajasthan by a huge margin of 237 runs at the Brabourne Stadium.

Mumbai, who began the day needing six wickets for a win, dismissed Rajasthan for a paltry 171 runs in 61.4 overs, 22 minutes into the post-lunch session.

The hosts earned four points with this win and will next face Gujarat in an away game starting November 10.

Chasing a target of 407, the visitors, resuming at the overnight score of 63 for four, began disastrously losing the wicket of debutant Ashok Menaria in the second over of the day.

Gagan Khoda (40)and Robin Bist (17) provided brief resistance with a partnership of 52 runs before being dismissed by medium-pacer Usman Malvi.

Following their departure only Pankaj Singh (33) provided some lower-order resistance.

Meanwhile, Dhaval Kulkarni, who had taken five wickets in the first innings, added four more at the cost of 44 runs to make a dream debut with match figures of nine for 92. He was ably supported by veteran Powar who finished with match figures of eight for 70.

Brief scores: Mumbai 307 and 305 for seven decl. vs Rajasthan 204 and 171 (Gagan Khoda 40; Dhaval Kulkarni 4 for48, Usman Malvi 3/41, Ramesh Powar 3/26

Delhi-Punjab opener ends in a draw

Delhi started their campaign bagging three points from the opener as their Super League match against Punjab ended in a tame draw at the Roshanara Club Ground.

Delhi, the defending champions, also won two bonus points by virtue of taking first innings lead, in reply to Punjab's 391, while the visitors got one point.

The only attraction of the day was a resilient half century by Delhi's Chetanya Nanda, who stayed on the middle for 106 minutes to adorn his 56-run innings with five delectable boundaries. 

Nanda paired up with Amit Bhandari, who remained unbeaten on 11, to add 57 runs on the last-wicket partnership, before Delhi were bundled out on 519.

With no result for the match on sight, Punjab batsmen received good batting practice during the rest of the day.

Punjab were on 140 for three wickets at the end of the match with Sunny Sohal (23) and skipper Pankaj Dharmani(22) on the middle.

Brief scores: Punjab 391 and 140 for three vs Delhi 519

Hyderabad logs three points

Hyderbad batsmen trod watchfully to bat through the last day to open their Group A account with three points on basis of their first innings lead over hosts Orissa.

Having already taken an 83-run lead over Orissa, Hyderabad resumed at the overnight score of 56 for one with opener D Ravi Teja and D Rishi Raja looking to build a good stand together.

However, veteran seamer Debashish Mohanty, taking full advantage of the seaming Barabati track, gave Orissa the first breakthrough of the morning as Teja (42) denied a half-century.

Rishi Raj (56) however completed his half-century before falling to the left arm medium-pacer Pritamjeet Das. Rishi's knock came from 137 balls which included five boundaries.

Orissa had to settle for one point.

Brief scores: Hyderabad 296 and 263 for five (D Rishi Raj 56, S Anoop Pai 53) vs Orissa 269

First innings lead fetch TN three points

Visiting Tamil Nadu on Thursday earned three points on the basis of their first innings lead while hosts Maharashtra had to be content with one point after their match ended in a draw in Nashik.

Chasing the visitor's mammoth total of 648 for three declared in the first innings, Maharashtra, who started the morning at 401 for seven, were bowled out for 457 in their first essay.

Made to follow on, they reached 250 for six when play ended on the fourth and last day.

Tamil Nadu opener Abhinav Mukund, who scored an unbeaten 300 in the first innings, was declared Man of the Match.

Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 648 for three decl vs Maharashta 457 and 250 for six.

Railways return with three points

Debutant Anurit Singh took six wickets for 49 runs but Railways had to be content with a first innings lead of 24 points in the drawn Group B encounter at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

In reply to Karnataka's first innings total of 365, Railways reached 389.

Anurit then left Karnataka batsmen reeling with his six-wicket haul and the hosts folded up for 127.

Railways were sniffing victory but could only manage 11 for two before the end of play.

Brief scores: Karnataka 365 & 127 (C Raghu 33 not out, K B Pawan 22; Anurit Singh 6/49, Sanjib Sanyal 2/17, Karan Sharma 2/35) vs Railways 389 (Yere Goud 122 not out, Sanjay Bangar 84, Raja Ali 52; Vinay Kumar 3/38, C Raghu 2/67, Sunil Raju 2/125) & 11/2 (NC Aiyappa 1/3, Vinay Kumar 1/7).