Ranji Trophy 2017-18, Round 3, Day 3, Review

The high-scoring encounter at Mumbai was a mouth-watering contest in Round 3 of the Ranji Trophy 2017-18, with last year’s semi-finalists Mumbai and Tamil Nadu fighting each other for valuable points. Day 3 saw a new hero emerge in the visitors’ camp, where the returning Yo Mahesh scoring a crucial century for the visitors. Tamil Nadu were bowled out with a crucial lead of 76 over the host side. The bowling-unit of the visiting side managed to get the crucial wicket of Prithvi Shaw, with Shreyas Iyer unbeaten on 56 for the home side.

Andhra, who began the day on 278/2 declared the innings at 584/5 and startled the Odisha batting-lineup with some quirky bowling. The Andhra bowlers managed to pick up 6 Odisha wickets while only conceding 294 runs, with only four wickets separating them from first innings lead points at Vizianagaram.

Madhya Pradesh were outright victors on the third day of the play, with leggie Mihir Hirwani bowling out the opposition for a mere 103 picking up five wickets against 22 runs. At Agartala on Day 3, the MP batsmen had to just score 52 runs and got there without breaking a sweat.

In Group A, Assam faced a harrowing defeat at the hands of Railways, who scored 483 runs in reply to Assam’s 244 in the first innings. In the second innings, however, Assam could manage to score only 41 runs, while losing seven wickets to give the Railways a victory on Day 3 of the third round of the Ranji Trophy.

Hyderabad, meanwhile in the same group are facing a daunting task on the last day with 287 more runs required for them to get the crucial points against Karnataka. Karnataka managed to get a huge total in the second innings, to pile on the agony of the opposition. Karun Nair played an extraordinary knock of 134 in Karnataka’s second innings to help their total to 332.

Maharashtra, on the other hand, are running away with a first-innings lead of 41 runs. They are batting at the end of Day 3, with 256 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in reply to Uttar Pradesh’s 271 runs on the same day with Rahul Tripathi playing a crucial knock worth 91 runs.

The Kerala team is in a solid position in Group B, with a 92-run lead over Rajasthan. Jalaj Saxena is leading the side’s arsenal with an unbeaten century, with Sanju Samson also toiling hard at the other end for his 72. Gujarat completed an innings and 64 runs rout against Jammu and Kashmir, with Hardik Patel and Piyush Chawla leading the attack for the home side with five and four wickets apiece.

At Ranchi, Jharkhand declared on Day 3 with a first inning lead of 217 runs over the visiting Haryana side with Ishank Jaggi scoring 135 runs for the home team. Haryana, in reply, are placed at 141/4 while Jharkhand gets the points for a first inning lead.

Punjab’s 635 runs in the first innings look like a daunting task for the Goa team, who only managed to get 246 in the first innings, while struggling in the second innings at 67 for the loss of two wickets. Raghu Sharma’s four wickets are leading the charge for Punjab, while Goa faces a tremendous task on the final day of play in Group D.

At Delhi, Himachal Pradesh declared on Day 3, with a 149-run first innings lead and scored 179 runs in the second innings to set a target of 325 runs against Services. Vidarbha’s tail-enders are holding guard in response to Chattisgarh’s huge first innings score of 489 runs. Vidarbha, are currently poised at 331/6, with only 158 runs separating the two sides in the crucial Group D encounter to wrap up the day on Day 3.

Brief Scores-

Group A:

Maharashtra 312/10 & 256/4 (RA Tripathi 91, AR Bawane 58) vs Uttar Pradesh 271/10 (Eklavya Dwivedi 72; CG Khurana 6/53) at Lucknow

Karnataka 183/10 & 332/10 (Karun Nair 134, Stuart Binny 72; Mehdi Hasan 5/88) vs Hyderabad 136/10 & 92/2 (Tanmay Agarwal 43*) at Shimoga

Assam 244/10 & 41/7 (Anureet Singh 3/18) vs Railways 483/7 dec (Arindam Ghosh 101*, Nitin Bhille 89) at Guwahati

Group B:

Kerala 335/10 & 217/2 (Jalaj Saxena 102*, Sanju Samson 72*) vs Rajasthan 243/10 (DH Yagnik 62; Jalaj Saxena 8/85) at Trivandrum

Jammu and Kashmir 261/10 & 130/10 (HP Patel 5/49, Piyush Chawla 4/38) vs Gujarat 455/10 (MC Juneja 131; Manik Gupta 5/143) at Surat (Gujarat won by innings and 64 runs)

Haryana 208/10 & 141/4 (R M Dagar 64) vs Jharkhand 425/9 dec (Ishank Jaggi 135) at Ranchi

Group C:

Mumbai 374/10 & 85/1 (Shreyas Iyer 56*) vs Tamil Nadu 450/10 (B Indrajith 152, V Yo Mahesh 103*; Vijay Gohil 4/129) at Mumbai

Andhra 584/5 dec vs Odisha 294/6 (Govinda Poddar 111, Subhransu Senapati 91) at Vizianagram

Tripura 205/10 & 103/10 (Mihir Hirwani 5/22, Ankit Sharma 4/51) vs Madhya Pradesh 260/10 & 52/0 at Agartala (MP won by 10 wickets)

Group D:

Punjab 635/10 vs Goa 246/10 (Amit Yadav 52*; Raghu Sharma 4/50) & 67/2 at Porvorim

Himachal Pradesh 364/10 & 176/9 dec vs Services 215/10 & 28/1 at Delhi

Chhattisgarh 489/10 vs Vidarbha 331/6 (FY Fazal 125, Wasim Jaffer 50) at Nagpurax