A round-up of Day 3 of the Ranji Trophy matches played on Thursday.
Ricky Bhui cracked an unbeaten 144 while pacer Cheepurapalli Stephen scalped four wickets as Andhra Pradesh took complete control of their Group A Ranji Trophy match against Delhi on the third day in Ongole, Andhra Pradesh, on Thursday.
After conceding a 153-run first innings lead to Andhra, Delhi were reduced to 89 for 6 in 28 overs in their second innings with Stephen running through their top-order.
As Delhi still trail by 64 runs with just four second innings wickets in hand and one day left in the match, Andhra can aim for a bonus point and grab seven points if they can notch up an innings win on Friday.
Resuming at overnight individual score of 70 and the team total of 249 for 6, Bhui batted for 40 overs with the tail enders and carried his bat through the innings to take Andhra to 368 all out from 127 overs.
Bhui faced 313 balls during his unbeaten knock and struck 15 boundaries and four sixes.
Delhi pacer Navdeep Saini, who was drafted in for injured Deepak Chahar in the Indian squad for the West Indies ODI series, took a five-for but his side had little to cheer apart from that.
In the second innings, Delhi were in a precarious position with Lalit Yadav holding fort on 23 not out from 48 deliveries, along with Vikas Mishra (7 not out), at stumps on the third and penultimate day.
Openers Kunal Chandela and Hiten Dalal contributed just 19 and 13 runs respectively while four Delhi batsmen could not reach double-digit figures.
Stephen's victims were Chandela, Dalal, one-down Kunwar Bidhuri (2) and Jonty Sidhu (9) while pace colleague KV Sasikanth got the wickets of captain Nitish Rana (8) and wicketkeeper Anuj Rawat (0).
Brief Scores:
Delhi: 215 and 89 for 6 in 28 overs (Lalit Yadav 23 batting; Cheepurapalli Stephen 4/74) vs Andhra Pradesh: 368 all out in 127 overs (Ricky Bhui 144 not out; Navdeep Saini 5/86).
K'taka take first innings lead against Uttar Pradesh
Hubli: All-rounder Shreyas Gopal struck a gritty half century, as hosts Karnakata managed to take the
crucial first-innings lead against Uttar Pradesh on the third day of their Elite Group B Ranji Trophy match on Thursday.
Courtesy Gopal's patient 58 off 182 balls, the hosts managed to take a slender 40-run first innings lead.
Gopal's knock meant that Karnataka first passed the UP total and then their bowlers J Suchith (28 off 120 balls) and Abhimanyu Mithun (34 not out), also contributed with the bat and scored valuable runs.
Karnataka were eventually bowled out for 321.
Uttar Pradesh made 281 in their first essay. Karnataka resumed the third day on their overnight score of 168/4, with Abhishek Reddy (32 off 102 balls) and Shreyas Gopal (58 off 182 balls) at the crease.
While Reddy fell early, Gopal held one end and hit six boundaries in his knock.
Reddy and Gopal conjured a 38-run stand for the fifth wicket before Reddy was caught by Rinku Singh off slow left-arm bowler Saurabh Kumar (6-116).
Wicket-keeper B R Sharath (16) and David Mathais (4) were taken out in quick succession to peg back the visitors.
However, then Suchith joined hands with Gopal, and the two not only frustrated the UP bowlers, but also took the team on the cusp of getting the first inning lead.
When Gopal fell, Karnataka were 279-8, just two runs behind Uttar Pradesh's first innings total.
Later, Mithun, who had bagged six wickets, also made a fine unbeaten 34.
In their second essay, Uttar Pradesh were teetering at 29/1, having lost their opener Aryan Juyal (0).
Juyal had made a hundred in the first innings.
The visitors trail Karnataka by 11 runs and will need to bat throughout the fourth and final day to avoid defeat.
Brief Scores: Uttar Pradesh 281 and 29/1 (Madhav Kaushik 19 not out; Ronit More 1-16) vs Karnataka 321 (Devdutt Padikkal 74, Shreyas Gopal 58, Saurabh Kumar 6-116). Uttar Pradesh trail by 11 runs.
At Visakhapatnam: Railways 248 and 27/1 vs Saurashtra 479/9 Declared (Arpit Vasavada 134 not out, Cheteshwar Pujara 69; D Jadeja 66; Karn Sharma 4-105). Railways trail by 204 runs.
At Dindigul: Himachal Pradesh 158 and 154 (S Verma 36, Rishi Dhawan 35, R Ashwin 4-55, T Natarajan 2-19) vs Tamil Nadu 96 and 145 (K Mukunth 48, Akash Vashisht 7-33, Rishi Dhawan 1-13). Himachal Pradesh won by 71 runs.
At Indore: Madhya Pradesh 125 and 270 (Ajay Rohera 64, Anand Bais 45;L Meriwala 3-59, Abhimanyusingh 2-26) vs Baroda 222 and 114/4 (Kedar Devdhar 48, Aditya Waghmode 22; Gourav Yadav 2-51). Baroda need 60 runs to win.
Chasing 364 for victory, Maha 192/5 in 2nd inngs against J&K
Pune: Jammu and Kashmir nosed ahead on the third day of their Ranji Trophy Group 'C' match against Maharashtra on Thursday with late wickets as the hosts reached 192 for 5 in 56.4 overs, requiring 172 more runs for a win.
Resuming at the overnight 155 for 4, the visiting team was dismissed for 263 in the second innings, leaving Maharasthra 364 to secure victory and six points.
Suryash Raina (83) and Abdul Samad (78) batted well for the visitors and helped the team set a stiff fourth innings target for Maharashtra.
Ruturaj Gaikwad (78), who plays for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, and MS Trunkwala (54) put on 108 for the opening wicket in 28.1 overs to set up a good platform for the home team.
However, the fall of three wickets in the space of 13 runs pegged Maharashtra back.
Mohammed Mudhasir took two of the wickets to fall including that Trunkwala and R A Tripathi (13).
Brief scores: Group C: Jammu & Kashmir 209 all out in 63.5 overs (Ahmed Banday 76, Abid Mushtaq 50; A Sanklecha 4/56, DR Deshmukh 2/15) and 263 all out in 71.3 over (Suryansh Raina 83, Abdul Samad 78, Fazil Rashid 43; DR Deshmukh 4/46, SS Bachhav 3/35) vs Maharashtra 109 all out in 41.1 overs (MS Trunkwala 31; Umar Nazir 5/40, Abid Mushtaq 2/23) and 192 for 5 in 56.4 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 71, MS Trunkwala 54, Ankit Bawane 31 batting).
At Raipur: Uttarakhand 120 all out in 37.5 overs (D Negi 29; AJ Mandal 3/17, PM Datey 3/42) and 174 for 3 in 74 overs (Tanmay Srivastava 58, Avneesh Sudha 37) vs Chhattisgarh 520 for 7 declared for 6 in 122 overs (AN Khare 192, Ajay Mandal 241 not out, Pradeep Chamoli 4/95).
At Cuttack: Services 271 all out in 66.1 overs (NH Verma 53, RS Paliwal 58, Rahul Singh 55; Basant Mohanty 6/69) and 86 for 3 in 30 overs vs Odisha 540 in 160.2 overs (Debasish Samantray 195, Biplab Samantray 73, Suryakant Pradhan 64, Debrata Pradhan 57, AR Sarangi 37; AM Bamal 4/116).
At Ranchi: Assam 162 all out in 56.5 overs (Riyan Parag 55, Sibshankar Roy 27; Anukul Roy 4/28, Shahbaz Nadeem 3/55, Ashish Kumar 3/25) and 186 all out in 62.4 overs (KN Saikia 48, Pallavkumar Das 32; Shahbaz Nadeem 4/53, Utkarsh Singh 4/55) lost to Jharkhand 415 for 9 declared in 99.2 overs (Md Nazim 173, Utkarsh Singh 58, Anukul Roy 37; Mukhtar Hussain 2/48) by an innings and 67 runs.
Jharkhand: 7 points, Assam: 0.
