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A round up of the third day's action of the Ranji Trophy Super League matches on Tuesday.
Saurashtra make Mumbai follow-on
Debutant left-arm seamer Balkrishna Jadeja's splendid opening spell helped Saurashtra tighten the noose around Mumbai in the fourth round Ranji Trophy Elite Division match in Rajkot on Tuesday.
Mumbai, replying to Saurashtra's first innings total of 643 for 4, were shot out for 214, giving the hosts a 429-run lead on the third and penultimate day of the match.
Mumbai, whose primary goal was scoring 493 runs to avoid the follow-on, after Saurashtra's skipper Jaydev Shah declared his first innings at the overnight total of 643-4, failed to get a good start and lost wickets at regular intervals to some disciplined bowling.
Only Hiken Shah, Sairaj Bahutule and No 10 batsman Usman Malvi resisted the hosts' attack, led by Balkrishna Jadeja.
Jadeja struck in his first over, trapping in-form batsman Ajinkya Rahane (0) in front of the wickets. Sahil Kukreja (4), Amol Mazumdar (0) and skipper Wasim Jaffer (12) all failed to negotiate Jadeja's swing.
Jadeja exploited the moist conditions and reduced Mumbai to 28 for 4 before they went for lunch at 56 for 5.
Hiken Shah (47, 163 balls, 8x4) and Bahutule (42, 117 balls, 3x4, 1x6) added 59 runs for the sixth wicket before Shah was dismissed.
Mumbai lost another three wickets in quick succession, including that of Bahutule and it seemed the visitors could not cross 150-run mark. But Usman Malvi and Dhaval Kulkarni frustrated the hosts by putting up 72 runs for the last wicket, which was the highest partnership for the visitors.
However, Malvi's brave knock came to an end when he played a casual shot to off-spinner Kamlesh Makwana and Sitanshu Kotak took brilliant catch at first slip.
Mumbai, 493 runs behind, will have to bat the final day to keep their top place in the points table intact.
For Saurashtra, Balkrishna Jadeja was the wrecker-in-chief, taking 4 for 41, while Kamlesh Makwana and Ravindra Jadeja took two wickets each giving away 32 and 62 runs respectively.
Brief scores: Saurashtra 643 for 4 decl vs Mumbai 214 (Hiken Shah 47, Usman Malvi 56, Balkrishna 4-41).
Gujarat take first innings lead over Delhi
Off spinner Mohnish Parmar and seamer Siddharth Trivedi today put the breaks on Delhi as Gujarat, took the all important first innings lead, bowling out the visitors for 314 in reply to their 350 on the third day of the Group A match in Valsad.
At close Gujarat, who took a 36-run first innings lead, had made 76 for no loss in their second innings, for an overall lead of 112 runs. P Panchal with 42 and Nilesh Modi with 26 were at the crease.
Delhi, who resumed the day at 199 for six still needing 152 runs to take the first innings lead, began solidly with the overnight pair of debutant Yogesh Nagar and S Narwal batting resolutely to frustrate the efforts of the Gujarat bowlers to get an early breakthrough.
The duo, who had added an unbroken 37 runs partnership for the seventh wicket, slowly but surely took their team nearer the Gujarat first innings total with Nagar bringing up his maiden fifty in his first match in the process.
The two put on 108 runs for the seventh wicket before Trivedi got the important breakthrough for the home side, when he had Sumit Narwal trapped plumb in front for a resolute 48 which came after facing 131 balls and was inclusive of five boundaries to leave Delhi on 270 for seven still needing 81 runs for the first innings lead.
Chetanya Nanda then joined Nagar and the two continued to frustrate Gujarat further, putting on 23 runs for the eighth wicket, before Nagar's marathon effort ended when he edged an outgoing delivery from Trivedi to keeper Parthiv, who made no mistake.
Nagar made 79 after facing 210 balls and his innings was inclusive of 8 fours and a six.
Mohnish then finished of the tail to end Delhi innings on 314 with C Nanda remaining not out with 25. Mohnish with four for 104 and Trivedi with 3-52 were the pick of the bowlers.
Brief scores: Gujarat 350 and 76 for no loss vs Delhi 314 (Yogesh Nagar 79, Gaurav Chabra 63, Sumit Narwal 48, Mohnish Parmar four for 104, Siddharth Trivedi three for 52).
Punjab fighting to avert defeat against Orissa
An unbroken 115-run sixth wicket stand between Ankur Kakkar (77) and Uday Kaul (50) helped a struggling Punjab, fighting to avert outright defeat, to make 256 for five at close on the third day of their Group A match against Orissa at the Railway Stadium in Bangladesh.
Trailing the hosts by 292 runs in the first innings, Punjab were tottering at 141 for five at one stage.
But Kakkar, who had so far batted for 187 minutes and hit 11 fours, and Kaul (294 minutes, four boundaries) stemmed the rot as former Test medium pacer Debasish Mohanty threatened to run through the side with a haul of four for 50.
Commencing on the overnight score of 59 for one, the visitors suffered a setback immediately as Mohanty trapped Ravi Inder Singh in front of the wicket.
Singh, who had hit eight fours in his 35, did not add to his total.
Skipper Pankaj Dharmani and opener Karan Goel then added 42 runs for the third wicket before the former was bowled by left arm spinner Dhiraj Singh for 16.
Goel fell to Mohanty's guile soon after when he was trapped leg before for 58.
He spent over four hours to compile the score which included five hits to the fence.
Punjab were still to make 37 runs to make the hosts bat again in the second innings.
Brief scores: Punjab 60 and 256 for five (Ankur Kakkar 77 not out, Uday Kaul 50 not out, Debasis Mohanty four for 50) vs Orissa 353.
Railways 37 runs away from win over Andhra
Medium-pacer Anureet Singh blew away Andhra's top-order while off-spinner Kulamani Parida polished the tail to put Railways 37 runs away from victory in the Group B match in New Delhi.
Resuming on 208 for eight in their first innings, Railways eventually folded for 227, thus eking out a 19-run first innings lead.
The Railways bowlers then returned to shoot out Andhra for 108 in 44.3 overs with Anureet and Parida sharing eight wickets between them.
Chasing 90 for a win, Railways were 53 for two at stumps with Miling Tamhane (17) and Harshan Rawle (4) in the middle.
Brief scores: Andhra 208 and 108 (Anureet Singh four for 29, Kulamani Parida four for 10) vs Railways 227 (Sanjib Sanyal 70) and 53 for two.
UP sniff outright win against Maharashtra
Despite disappointing bowling performance of RP Singh, Uttar Pradesh were poised well to force an outright win pushing back opponent Maharashtra on largely bowlers' day of theirGroup 'B' Super League match at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur.
Conceding the first innings lead of 94, Maharashtra were struggling at 199 for seven in their second innings at the stumps against UP, who wound up their first innings at 315 after resuming from overnight score of 290 for six.
The remaining four batsmen of UP could add just 25 runs in 11.1 overs on Tuesday.
Samad Fallah of Maharashtra completed his second five-wicket haul of the season on the third day, which witnessed eleven wickets falling.
Singh, who has just been dropped from the one-day national side to make way for Irfan Pathan, was out of his elements conceding 61 runs in 19 over without troubling the Maharashtra batsmen much.
Maharashtra with just 105 runs second innings lead would try to bat as much as they could on the final day on Wednesday, where as UP will go all out for their maiden outright win of the season even with five points.
Brief scores: Maharashtra 221 and 199 for seven (Kedar Jadhav 65, Deepak Silampur 56) vs UP (S Shukla 131, P Singh 68, Samad Fallah five for 93).
Baroda reach 204 for four
After a shaky start in their second innings, Baroda managed to post 204 runs for the loss of four wickets against Karnataka in the Elite Group B match in Bangalore.
Baroda, who allowed Karnataka to gain a massive first innings lead of 226 runs, lost two early wickets of Satyajit Parab (19) and Azhar Bilakhia (4) and were struggling at 32 for two at one stage.
Rakesh Solanki, who joined opener Connor Williams (97), steadied the innings, adding 66 runs with the help of nine boundaries before bad light brought a premature end to the day's proceedings.
Hosts Karnataka, resuming at their overnight score of 347 for seven, could add only 48 runs before they were all out for 395.
Brief Scores: Baroda 169 and 204 for four (Connor Williams 97 not out, Sunil Joshi 2 for 056) vs Karnataka 395 (Ajitesh Argal 4 for 93, Rajesh Pawar 3 for 107, Salim Veeragi 3 for 73).