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Mumbai had much to cheer about before the start of the Ranji Trophy knock-out phase, as a good show by their bowlers gave them three vital points in their final Super League Group A match against Gujarat in Mumbai on Friday.
The visitors, who resumed the fourth and final day on 432-3 and looked on course to march ahead of the hosts' first innings score of 648-6 declared, lost their remaining seven wickets for the addition of 70 runs, bowled out for 502, conceding a lead of 146.
In their second essay, Mumbai scored 180 for the loss of two wickets, openers Sahil Kukreja (84) and Sushant Marathe (81) doing the bulk of the scoring.
Earlier, Gujarat skipper Parthiv Patel 149 (248 balls, 15x4, 1x6) could add only one run to his overnight score of 148 before he was dismissed by off-spinner Ramesh Powar. He added 266 runs for the fourth wicket with Bhavik Thakkar.
Parthiv's wicket triggered a lower order collapse as Mumbai's bowlers, who took only three wickets in 119 overs till Day 3, scalped the last six wickets in 30.1 overs.
Thakkar scored 122 (290 balls, 11x4, 3x6) before he was caught behind off Agarkar.
Medium pacer Avishkar Salvi polished off the tail to end with figures of 3-37. Dhawal Kulkarni (3-67) and Ramesh Powar (2-144) were the other successful bowlers for the hosts.
Baroda miss out on quarter-finals berth
Pune: Baroda registered a straightforward seven-wicket victory over Maharashtra in their last Group B Super League Ranji Trophy match, but lost out on a quarter-finals spot to Delhi after they failed to overhaul the 101-run target set by the hosts without losing a wicket.
Had they reached the 101-run mark without any loss, Baroda would have made the quarter-finals ahead of Delhi, but the loss of a bonus point meant they finished in fourth place.
On the other hand, Maharashtra had very little to celebrate as they were relegated to the Plate League of the tournament.
Starting at the overnight score of two for one, Baroda took only 25 overs on the fourth and final day to overhaul the paltry target set by Maharashtra.
Baroda's run chase mainly revolved around Kedar Devdhar, who struck an unbeaten 53 off 79 balls, which had four boundaries studded in it.
For Maharashtra, leg-spinneer Digambhar Waghmare picked two wickets for 24 runs from his five overs, while Samad Fallah claimed one victim.
Karnataka beat Saurashtra by six wickets
Rajkot: Already through to the quarter-finals, Karnataka spanked Saurashtra by six wickets in their Ranji Trophy Elite Division Group B match.
Set 240 for victory on the fourth and final day, the visitors achieved the target in 52.2 overs, losing only four wickets in the process at the SCA stadium.
The main contributors for were G Satish (68 not out), Manish Pandey (68) and skipper Robin Uthappa (47).
Karnataka secured four points from the match to remain on top of Group B.
Saurashtra suffered their third straight defeat, having lost to Delhi and Baroda earlier.
G Satish, who cracked a brilliant 120 in the first innings, came good again and hit an unbeaten 68 off 139 balls.
Pandey scored a 73-ball 68, studded with seven fours and two sixes.
Uthappa, who promoted himself to open the innings, hit a quickfire 47 off 36 balls, inclusive of nine fours.
For Saurashtra, Rakesh Dhruv took two wickets.
Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 389 for 8, the hosts were all out for 407 after facing only five overs on Day 4 of the match.
Pratik Mehta remained unbeaten on 77.
S Arvind and U Patel took three Saurashtra wickets each, giving away 11 and 98 runs respectively.
Delhi in quarter-finals after draw with Bengal
Kolkata: Former champions Delhi qualified for the quarter-finals, collecting one point from their Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match against Bengal, which ended in a draw.
Having finished with 16 points, Delhi took third place in the group and will take on Group A toppers Tamil Nadu in the last eight tie in New Delhi from December 24-27.
Karnataka (28 points) and Uttar Pradesh (18) finished first and second respectively in Group B.
Bengal (11) logged three points on the basis of their first innings lead but it was not enough for them to make the next stage. They finished the 2009-10 season in the fifth place.
In reply to Bengal's mammoth first innings total of 522, Delhi were bowled out for 378, as wicketkeeper Puneet Bisht remained unbeaten on 128.
In their second essay, Bengal rode on a 186-run opening stand between Arindam Das (102 retired hurt) and Rohan Banerjee (77) to score 223 for three.
Resuming at their overnight score of 348 for seven, Delhi avoided the follow-on and added 30 runs before Bisht ran out of partners.
Ishant Sharma, who was not out on 16, failed to add any to his overnight score and was the first of the three victims that Bengal left-arm spinner Iresh Saxena claimed today.
The youngster finished with five for 72 from his 36.1 overs as the Delhi tail-enders fell to the guile of Saxena.
The last two Delhi batsmen, Parvinder Awana (2) and Vikash Misra (2), were Saxena's fourth and fifth victims as Delhi finished 144 runs behind.
To complete the formalities, Bengal batted for the remaining period on the concluding day and made 227 for the loss of two wickets.
The highlight of Bengal's second innings was opener Das's knock before he retired hurt in the 50th over. He was given fine support at the other end by Rohan Banerjee, who made 77, as Bengal's opening duo stitched 186 runs before the latter was run-out by Gaurav Chabra.
Das hit 15 boundaries in his 165-ball knock while Banerjee faced 137 balls, and struck 10 boundaries.
Hyderabad relegated to Plate division
Hyderabad: Hosts Hyderabad were relegated to the Plate division of the Ranji Trophy for the first time after their Super League Group A match against Tamil Nadu ended in a tame draw.
Needing an outright victory to stay afloat in the Super League, Hyderabad bowed before the batting prowess of a confident Tamil Nadu side, which came into the match with their place already secured in the quarter-finals of the elite domestic tournament.
Tamil Nadu will now lock horns with Delhi in the quarter-finals at Palam from December 24.
For Tamil Nadu, the match against Hyderabad was an ideal opportunity for practice and their batters put up a mammoth 785 on the board in reply to Hyderabad's 347.
Tamil Nadu added 191 runs to their overnight score on Day 4 to take a mammoth 438 runs first innings lead, thereby ensuring Hyderabad's demotion to the Plate division.
Apart from Abhinav Mukund (257) and S Badrinath (122), C Ganapathy also made his mark with a 192-ball 126 that included 14 fours and a six.
Hyderabad scored 148 for two wickets in their second innings, riding on Abhinav Kumar's unbeaten 103 that came off just 92 balls and included 13 boundaries and two sixes.
Punjab in quarter-finals after draw with Railways
New Delhi: Punjab breezed into the quarter-finals while Railways fell by the wayside after the Super League match between the Group A teams petered out to a tame draw.
Railways needed nothing short of an outright victory to reach the quarter-finals while Punjab needed just one point. In the end, the visitors got three points from the outing -- thanks to their 125-run first innings lead -- to move into last eight. Railways crashed out of the race.
Punjab will take on Karnataka in the quarter-finals from December 24 at Bangalore.
With no result in sight, Railways resumed their second innings on 16 for one and reached 230 for four at stumps.
Sanjay Bangar was unbeaten on 115 from 263 balls, inclusive of 10 fours and three sixes.
Harshad Rawle was the next best scorer with a patient 138-ball 40.
Overnight batsman V Cheluvaraj fell early to Rajwinder Singh and then Rahul Sharma caught TP Singh off his own bowling to reduce the hosts to 62 for three.
Bangar and Rawle added 123 runs for the fourth wicket before the latter departed.
Himachal pacer Thakur shines on last day
Dharamshala: Himachal Pradesh pacer Ashok Thakur destroyed Orissa's top order with a six-wicket haul to reduce the visitors' second essay to 183 for eight before their four-day Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match ended in a draw.
Thakur (6 for 38) knocked the daylights out of Orissa with his triple strikes in the opening spell that completely unhinged the visitors.
Bikas Pati (0), skipper Shiv Sundar Dass (6) and Niranjan Behera (0) fell to Thakur's pace and returned to the pavillion at Orissa scorecard reading 11 for 3.
Rakesh Mohanty (21) and Pravarjan Mullick (19) tried to stabilise the innings with their brief partnership stand of 48 runs, but Thakur again knocked off the stumps of Mohanty.
His pace partner Mohinderraj Sharma (2 for 68) also joined the party and chipped in with the wicket of Mullick.
Subharajit Sahoo (33) and Halhadar Das (47) then tried to consolidate the innings and added 68 runs for the sixth wicket to take the score to 128, before Thakur bowled Sahoo.
Earlier resuming 360 for 7, overnight batsman V A Indulkar (165) and Vikramajeet Malik (72) started the proceedings on a cautious note and took the Himachal score to 429 before being separated by Mohanty.
After that Malik and Thakur (14) took the score to 486 before being all out.