Ranji Trophy 2015, Group A: Ashish Hooda keeps Haryana in the game
Ashish Hooda scalped four wickets for 39 runs in an impressive pace bowling spell as Haryana came back into their Ranji Trophy Group A match against Bengal on the third and penultimate day in Lahli on Sunday.
Haryana, led by Virender Sehwag, conceded a 104-run first innings to the visiting team as they were all out for 225 midway in the morning session in reply to Bengal’s first innings total of 329 all out.
Overnight batsmen Rohit Sharma (78) and Yuzvendra Chahal (42) were dismissed in quick succession after they shared 105 runs for the ninth wicket as the home side folded their innings.
Sharma and Chahal were instrumental in taking Haryana to a respectable total as the home side were 120 for 8 at one stage before the duo took the total past 200-mark.
With 104-run first innings lead, Bengal found themselves in the drivers’ seat but their batsmen came a cropper in their second innings giving Haryana a chance to come back into the match. Bengal ended the day at 146 for 7 for an overall lead of 250 runs with three second innings wickets in hand.
Hooda rocked the Bengal innings early on by dismissing three of the top-four batsmen to reduce the visiting team to 50 for 4. Sudip Chatterji (49) and Pramod Chandila (24) stitched 56 runs for the fifth wicket and that was the biggest Bengal partnership.
In fact, Chatterji was the top scorer as none of the Bengal batsman could score a half century.
Pankaj Shaw and Pragyan Ojha were batting on 19 and one respectively when the stumps were drawn for the day.
Brief Scores: Bengal: 329 & 146/7 in 71 overs (Sudip Chatterji 49; Ashish Hooda 4/39) Haryana: 225 all out in 83.4 overs (Rohit Sharma 78, Yuzvendra Chahal 42; Mukesh Kumar 4/53)
Odisha give strong reply to Delhi on day three
Nataraj Behera and Anurag Sarangi struck fifties as Odisha gave a strong first innings reply to Delhi by reaching 195 for four on day three of the Ranji Trophy Group A game in Bhubaneshwar on Sunday.
Sarangi was unbeaten on 76 while Behera made 62 at the top to take the hosts closer to Delhi’s 311 at the KIIT stadium.
Delhi, resuming the day at 245 for 7, went on to add 66 runs to their total with the help of tail-ender Pulkit Narang (41 not out ).
Brief Scores: Delhi 1st Innings: 311 in 136.1 overs (Milind Kumar 59, Dhruv Shorey 42, Gautam Gambhir 41, Pukit Narang 41 not out; S Pradhan 4/119) Odisha 195/4 in 67 overs (Natraj Behera 62, Anurag Sarangi 76 batting; Pradeep Sangwan 2/30)
Karnataka look to post outright win over Rajasthan
Riding on Sreenath Aravind’s superb bowling and a quickfire century by Robin Uthappa, Karnataka on Sunday gained an upper hand as they reduced Rajasthan to 42 for three, chasing 358-run target, at the end of third day’s play of their Group A Ranji Trophy match in Jaipur.
On the fourth and final day on Monday, Rajasthan face an uphill task as they need 316 runs with seven wickets in hand.
Earlier on the day, Karnataka managed to take a slight 32-run first essay lead after bundling out Rajasthan for 241 in their opening innings.
Brief scores: Karnataka: 281 & 318 for five decl (Robin Uthappa 160, Abhishek Reddy 69) Rajasthan: 242 & 42/3 (Sreenath Aravind 2/20)
Maha need another 241 runs to win against Vidarbha
Maharashtra needed another 241 runs to win their Ranji match against Vidarbha at stumps on day three in Nagpur.
Chasing 244, Maharashtra started their second innings with opener Swapnil Gugagale back to the pavilion on a duck.
At the end of third day’s play Maharashtra were 3 for 1 in three overs.
Brief scores: Vidarbha: First innings 332 all out. Maharashtra: First innings 237 all out (Chirag Khurana 78, A Sarwate 3/41, S Wagh 2/55, Ravi Thakur 2/28) Vidarbha: Second innings 149 all out (Wasim Jaffar 33, Amol Ubarande 47. Akshay Darekar 5/78, Bharat Solanki 2/21) Maharashtra: Second innings: 3/1
