Hosts Vidarbha bowled with clinical precision to outclass table toppers Delhi by an innings and 93 runs in a group league encounter of the Ranji Trophy tournament in Nagpur.
Having won the match in less than two and half days, Vidarbha with seven points including a bonus from this match climbed upto second spot in the league table with 24 points from seven games.
Delhi, who have not done well in the last two matches stay put at the top with 30 points and are already through to quarter-finals of the national championship.
On the third day, Vidarbha took exactly 41 overs to demolish Delhi taking 12 wickets as their seamers and spinners shared the spoils in equal measure.
After getting all-out for 154 in the first innings thereby conceding a huge first innings lead of 216, Gautam Gambhir and co were asked to bat again and they fared even worse in the second essay as they were skittled out for 123 in 34 overs.
It was Sehwag, who was running high temperature, top-scored with 41 with the help of two boundaries and two sixes but it was more of a cameo than a match-saving effort.
Skipper Gautam Gambhir (16), Unmukt Chand (4) and veteran Mithun Manhas (1) all failed to contribute as left-arm seamer Shrikant Wagh (3/44), part-time seamer Faiz Fazal (2/21), off-spinner Akshay Wakhare (2/32) and left-arm arm spinner Rakesh Dhruv (3/17) shared the wickets amongst themselves.
The match would be a wake-up call for Delhi after their brilliant streak at home where they won all their matches outright with couple of bonus points.
Brief Scores:
Vidarbha 370
Delhi 154 & 123 in 34 overs (Virender Sehwag 41, Shrikant Wagh 3/44).
Bengal surrender initiative to Railways
Kolkata: Inability of the spin troika to dismiss the Railways' last wicket pair of Anureet Singh and Avinash Yadav cost hosts Bengal three points in a crucial group league encounter of the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament.
At stumps, Bengal were 187 for five in their second essay after Railways scored 302 to get a vital first innings lead of 34 runs. Bengal currently have a lead of 154 runs with a day left but not enough runs to force an outright victory on a partially responsive Eden Gardens track.
Veteran opener Arindam Das with another slow-paced innings of 38 off 114 balls was responsible for Bengal losing the momentum. The hosts crawled at a run-rate of less than three per over with little or no intent of trying to force an outright win after conceding the first innings lead.
Having consumed 19 of the 67 overs, Arindam spoiled the tempo of the Bengal second innings to such an extent that even Wriddhiman Saha (39 batting) and Shreevats Goswami (28 batting) found it difficult to up the ante during their 51-run stand for the sixth wicket.
Earlier, in the day, Bengal's spinners failed to dismiss the final pair of Anureet (26) and Avinash Yadav (12 no), who came together at the fall of ninth wicket at 265.
Skipper Mahesh Rawat top-scored with 71 which had seven fours and was bowled by left-arm spinner Amit Banerjee. With four runs needed to take first innings lead, the duo added as many 37 runs but also thwarted the Bengal attack for an hour using up 13 overs in the process.
Bengal off-spinner Saurashis Lahiri with figures of 5/99 was the pick of the bowlers but in reality he never looked threatening in his 32 overs with most of the wickets coming when the batsmen tried to attack him.
Brief Scores:
Bengal 268 and 187/5 (Wriddhiman Saha 39 batting, Arnab Nandi 2/25)
Railways 1st innings 302 (Mahesh Rawat 71, Saurashish Lahiri 5/99).
Karnataka in strong position against UP
Bengaluru: Karnataka closed in on a big win as their bowlers complemented the batsmen's strong showing by bundling out Uttar Pradesh for 220, giving the hosts a massive first-innings lead of 499 runs in their Group A Ranji Trophy match.
At stumps on the third day, Karnataka, after surprisingly choosing to bat the second time despite enforcing follow-on on the visitors, were eight for no loss at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. However, it must be noted that Karnataka had already booked a berth in the quarter-finals.
The hosts swelled their overall lead to 507 runs with a day to spare.
Karnataka had declared their first innings after posting a mammoth 719 for nine on Friday evening. The hosts then bowled out Uttar Pradesh in 87.4 overs, with Shreyas Gopal (4/51) and Sreenath Aravind (3/48) sharing the spoils.
When the stumps were drawn on the penultimate day, Robin Uthappa was batting on eight with Ravikumar Samarth yet to open his account.
Uttar Pradesh, in the absence of star batsman Suresh Raina, did not have any answer to Gopal and Aravind's bowling.
Gopal and Aravind ended with very creditable figures on a pitch that saw Stuart Binny become the first Karnataka batsman to notch up a triple century in first-class cricket as well as Ranji Trophy. Of his four scalps, Gopal cherished the wicket of Himanshu Asnora the most -- the batsman top-scored for UP with a knock of 70.
Uttar Pradesh had a bad start, losing opener Tanmay Srivastava with the scoreboard reading 18.
Uttar Pradesh lost three wickets with the score reading 61, but made a bit of recovery when Asnora and Parvinder Singh (34) built an 83-run partnership for fourth wicket.
The visitors, however, lost six wickets adding just 76 runs.
Mumbai in strong position against Baroda
Vadodara: Shreyas Iyer and Nikhil Patil struck half centuries as Mumbai declared at 304 for 9 to put themselves in a strong position on the third and penultimate day of their Ranji Trophy match against Baroda.
Iyer stroked his way to 90 from just 92 balls with 12 fours and two sixes while Patil remained not out on 50 from 78 deliveries from which he hit four boundaries and one six as Mumbai declared their second innings at 304 for 9 to set an unlikely target of 408 for Baroda for a win.
Mumbai scored at a brisk pace at 4.53 run per over, hitting the 304 runs in just 67 overs. The highlight of Mumbai innings was the 114-run stand for the fifth wicket between Iyer and Siddhesh Lad (48) as the duo revived the visiting side innings after they were reduced to 84 for 4 at one stage.
Yusuf Pathan claimed five wickets with his off-spin but that proved to be not enough to stop Mumbai from crossing the 300-run mark.
Baroda, who were shot out for 184 in just 54.3 overs in their first innings yesterday, were 67 for 2 from 20 overs in their second essay at the draw of stumps.
Baroda still require another 341 runs with 8 second innings wickets in hand with one day left in the Group A match at the Moti Bagh Stadium.
Opener Saurabh Wakaskar and Deepak Hooda were at the crease on 33 and 30 respectively at close of play.
The other opener and captain Aditya Waghmode was out for a duck in the sixth over after facing 15 deliveries while one-down Hardik Pandya was dismissed for just one after facing 17 balls.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai: 287 & 304/9 decl in 67 overs (Shreyas Iyer 90, Nikhil Patil 50 not out; Yusuf Pathan 5/80)
Baroda: 184 & 67/2 in 20 overs.
MP beat J&K in three days
Indore: Left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma returned with career best match and innings bowling figures as Madhya Pradesh handed Jammu and Kashmir a crushing innings and 97-run defeat in under three days in their Ranji Trophy match.
The 23-year-old Ankit returned with innings figures of 5/35 while off-spinner Jalaj Saxena also claimed an identical five wickets for 35 as the duo spun J&K out for just 97 in 36.3 overs in their second innings after being asked to follow on at Holkar Cricket Stadium.
Ankit had taken four wickets for 49 runs in Jammu and Kashmir's first innings 177 all out to come up with a career-best match figures of 9/84.
MP, who got seven points from today's win, remained in the hunt for a knock-out round berth while J&K ended their campaign.
The visiting side resumed the third day at 175 for 8 in their first innings but they lasted just nine balls, losing their last two wickets for the addition of just two runs, with Ankit taking both the wickets.
J&K were then asked to follow on as they conceded a 194-run first innings lead to MP who had scored 371 all out in their first innings.
After following on, J&K got only halfway to making MP bat again, being rolled for 97. Once again Ankit played a central role with the ball and he got an able supporter in off-spinner Saxena.
Rouf Bisati top-scored with 22 while seven of his batting colleagues could not score double digit runs.
Brief Scores:
Madhya Pradesh: 371
Jammu & Kashmir 177 all out in 51.4 overs (Aditya Singh 64; Ankit Sharma 4/49) and 97 all out in 36.3 overs (Ankit Sharma 5/35, Jalaj Saxena 5/35) by an innings and 97 runs.
First-innings lead for Gujarat against Maharashtra
Valsad: Maharashtra put up a much-improved batting display in their second innings after being enforced to follow on by Gujarat in their Group B Ranji Trophy match.
At stumps on the third day, Maharashtra were 131 for no loss in 29 overs after being bowled out for 262 in the first innings to concede a 167-run lead to the hosts.
Swapnil Gugale and Harshad Khadiwale were batting on 77 and 52, respectively, at the close of play on the penultimate day. Gugale hit eight fours and two sixes in his 90-ball fluent knock, while Khadiwale found the fence seven times facing 84 deliveries.
Gujarat were all out for 429 in their first innings, following which the visitors finished the second day at 86 for two at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium.
Maharashtra trailed the hosts by 36 runs with 10 wickets remaining.
Earlier, Rahul Tripathi (65) top-scored for Gujarat while Khadiwale (56) and Ankit Bawne (54) also made useful contributions in Maharashtra's first essay.
The experienced Ramesh Powar was the best bowler for Gujarat, returning figures of 4/34 to prevent the visitors from taking the crucial first-innings lead.
Mohanty bowls Odisha to victory over Punjab
Mohali: Seamer Basant Mohanty's incisive bowling with brilliant match haul of 10 for 85 enabled Odisha to shock a fancied Punjab team by six wickets to take giant leap towards avoiding the relegation in the Ranji Trophy tournament.
Mohanty, who had taken 4/43 in the first essay again tormented the Punjab batsmen as his 6/42 was primarily responsible for the hosts being shot out for 141 in their second innings.
He was ably supported by another right-arm seamer Deepak Behera (3/44), who also had an impressive match-figures of 7/91 as Odisha now climbed to eighth spot with 14 points and four clear of bottom-placed Saurashtra.
Only Yuvraj Singh with a gritty 56 off 113 balls with 10 fours and Gurkeerat Singh Mann with a 45-ball-43 tried to beef up the total with other batsmen having no clue about the swinging deliveries from Mohanty-Behera combination.
Requiring 126 to win, Odisha batsmen kept their composure as Govinda Poddar anchored the chase to perfection with a well-compiled unbeaten 60 off 137 balls with seven fours and a six to show for his efforts.
Left-handed opener Paresh Patel (29) also gave Odisha the start that they needed despite losing other opener Girija Rout cheaply.
With this loss, Punjab are now in a spot of bother with 19 points from seven games and dropped to fourth place as last year runners-up Maharashtra, who are likely to get a point against Gujarat are now in third place.
Punjab will now have to win their last match against Delhi at home in order to assure themselves of a quarter-final berth.
Brief Scores:
Punjab 167 and 141 (Yuvraj Singh 56, Basant Mohanty 6/42).
Odisha 183 and 127/4 (Govinda Poddar 60 no).
Harshal Patel stars in Haryana win over Rajasthan
Lahili: Medium-pacer Harshal Patel finished with 11-wicket match haul, including five in the second innings, to steer Haryana to a comprehensive innings-and-119-run win over Rajasthan and earn a bonus point in their Group B Ranji Trophy cricket match, in Lahli on Saturday.
Patel, who picked up six wickets in the first innings, returned with figures of five for 43, while Joginder Sharma (5/27) also chipped in with five scalps to bundle out Rajasthan for a meagre 74 in their second essay at the CH Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium.
Earlier, having posted a massive first-innings total of 373, Haryana had skittled out Rajasthan for 180 in their first first essay and then en-forced a follow-on on the visitors.
Resuming on 38 for five in their second innings on Saturday, Rajasthan needed 155 more runs with just five wickets in hand to avoid an innings defeat, but none of the visiting team batsmen could put up any resistance and their innings folded in 27.2 overs.
Rajasthan could add only 36 more runs to their overnight total, losing five wicket in the process in just 9.2 overs as the pace duo wreaked havoc.
Deepak Chahar top scored with 19, while only two other batsmen could reach the double digits.
Brief scores:
Haryana: 373
Rajasthan: 180 & 74 all out in 27.2 overs (Deepak Chahar 19; Joginder Sharma 5/27, Harshal Patel 5/43).
Image: Srikanth Wagh in action against Delhi
Photograph: PTI
