Ranji Trophy 2015, Group A: Bowlers complete formalities on final day as Karnataka register second outright win

Ranji team players celebrating after defeating Odisha by innings & 64 runs in Mysore on Tuesday. (Source: PTI)

Karnataka registered their second outright win, beating Odisha by an innings and 64 runs on the fourth and final day of their Group A Ranji Trophy match in Mysuru.

With this win Karnataka secured seven points, and are among the top contenders to qualify for the knockout stage with 21 points to their credit.

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Stuart Binny and Shreyas Gopal, ably supported by Vinay Kumar, helped Karnataka skittle out Odisha for 104 runs in their second innings under 37 overs.

Binny claimed four wickets for 34 runs and Gopal bagged three wickets for 43 runs, while Kumar ended with two for seven off seven overs and Udit Patel picked up one wicket.

Batting first, Odisha put on 232 all out in their first innings with Govinda Poddar scoring 153 runs after he had smashed 15 boundaries and a six off 230 balls.

In reply, Karnataka declared their first innings at 400 for nine after India discard Robin Uthappa scored his second century of the season with a superb 148 runs. He had scored his first ton against Rajasthan in the previous match.

Karnataka opener Mayank Agarwal and Karun Nair, also came good with their bat, scoring 78 and 73 runs, respectively. Nair and Uthappa took the game away from Odisha’s hands when they stitched a 169-run partnership for fourth wicket and helped hosts post 168-run first innings lead.

Resuming at the overnight score of zero for one, Odisha started on a disastrous note, losing first innings centurion Poddar, who was caught by Abhishek Reddy off Kumar for seven.

Binny turned the tide completely in Karnataka’s favour after he claimed two wickets in consecutive deliveries, first he sent back Nataraj Behera (19) and then Ranjit Singh for a naught.

After the fall of Singh, no batsman held the crease and with Karnataka bowlers, especially Binny and Gopal, wrecking havoc.

Anurag Sarangi was the top scorer for Odisha with 44 runs with six boundaries, scored off 75 balls.

To the dismay of Odisha, they lost four batsmen — Rajesh Dhuper, Singh, Biplab Samanataray and Basant Mohanty — without opening an account.

Ojha stars in Bengal’s first win of season

Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha spun Bengal to their maiden victory this season as his career-best match haul of 11 wickets helped the hosts outplay Vidarbha by 105 runs in the Group A Ranji Trophy cricket match, which witnessed an intense finish, on Tuesday.

Chasing a stiff 297, Vidarbha almost saw the day through with a valiant 96 from Ganesh Satish (11×4, 1×6) but the new Bengal recruit trapped him LBW with a ball that stayed low en route to 4-60 in the second innings to make it 183 for nine in the last ball of 82nd over.

With light fading fast and Bengal needing the last wicket, two catches were dropped to add more drama in the fag end of the fourth and final day.

But before it could go out of their hands Veer Pratap Singh (3-23), who had given the first two breakthroughs in the day, sealed the win dismissing Ravikumar Thakur to spark early Diwali celebrations in the hosts camp.

Having defeated the team, which was placed second before the match, Bengal thus opened up the table to jump to top four and brighten their last-eight hopes, while Vidarbha dropped to fifth.

Brief Scores

Bengal 334 and 164

Vidarbha 202 and 191 all out in 91.1 overs (Ganesh Satish 96, Subramaniam Badrinath 31; Pragyan Ojha 4-60).
Points: Bengal 6, Vidarbha 0.

Assam thrashes Haryana by six wickets

Amit Verma (51) and Gokul Sharma (19) took their time before knocking off the required 38 runs on the final day as Assam recorded a comfortable six-wicket win over Haryana in their Ranji Trophy Group A match, on Tuesday.

It was a comeback-win for Assam as they had conceded a first innings lead of 48 runs but their bowlers brought them back by bundling out the rivals for just 111 in their second essay.

Amit and Gokul remained steady when they came out this morning chasing a victory target of 160 runs. They batted slow, taking 16.1 overs to score the required 38 runs, but ensured that there is no twist in the tale.

Brief Scores:

Haryana 168 and 111 (H Rana 27;A Das 6/39, K Das 4/48)

Assam 120 and 122 for 4 in 38 overs.(Amit Verma 51 not out, KB A Karthik 48; A Hooda 2/62).