Ranji Trophy 2017-18, Round 4, Day 3, Review

The third day of the fourth round of the ongoing season of Ranji Trophy proved to be the moving day as few teams looked set for outright victories. Though the triple century of Mayank Agarwal (304*) was the talking point as Karnataka amassed 628/5 before declaring with a massive lead of 343 runs over Maharashtra in Pune at MCA Stadium. Karun Nair also scored 116 and returned to the form. The home side is staring at an innings defeat now as they were left reeling at 135/4 at stumps.

Though the match between Uttar Pradesh and Delhi is poised nicely as the visitors lead by 246 runs with three wickets left going into the final day. Earlier in the day, UP bowlers scalped remaining 4 wickets quickly and earned a crucial 22 run lead over the hosts. In their second essay, they posted 224/7 by the end of the day as the match hung in balance thanks to the skipper Ishant Sharma who picked 3/37 to keep his team in the hunt. Hyderabad enforced the follow-on on Railways as they were bowled out for 246 in reply to 474. Railways didn’t lose a wicket and the openers went through the tricky period somehow to score 13 runs.

Jharkhand has started off well after being enforced follow-on by Saurashtra. They ended the day on 139/1 as Nazim Siddiqui remained unbeaten on 83. They were bundled out for just 270 in their first innings in reply to 553 posted by their opponents. Gujarat is set to earn full points with a victory over Haryana as they were reduced to 94/7 chasing 361 runs. Piyush Chawla and SA Desai picked 7 wickets between them and dismantled the batting line-up of their opponents. Kerala is also on the brink of winning their game against Jammu and Kashmir as they only need 3 wickets on the final day. J&K were reeling at 56/7 when umpires called stumps at day 3.

Andhra turned the tables on Madhya Pradesh and took a crucial lead of 54 runs in the first innings. Then they reduced their opponents to 67/5 in their second essay and now are favourites to win the game. Ayyapa Bandaru wreaked havoc with 3/26 and would love to pick more wickets on the final day. Mumbai also needs to only six wickets to beat Odisha as they finished the day on 93/4 chasing the target of 413. The match between Baroda and Tripura is heading towards a stalemate as Tripura ended the day on 327/4 trailing by 194 runs still. They would love to take the lead and earn points on its basis on the final day.

Punjab looks certain to register their maiden victory of the season as Chhattisgarh lost 4 wickets with only 171 runs on the board. They still trail by 244 runs and would look avoid an innings defeat. Earlier in the day, the visitors declared their innings on 653/9 as Anmolpreet Singh missed out to score his maiden triple century and was dismissed on  267. Himachal Pradesh made a stellar comeback in the second innings after Bengal enforced a follow-on on them. They posted 207/2 at the end of day 3 and are only 6 runs behind the first innings lead taken by their opponents. Vidarbha bundled out Services for 317 runs and earned a lead of 68 runs before finishing the day on 111/2 in their second essay.

The final day looks set for the ultimate showdown as few teams will battle for outright victories and few will look to earn crucial points on the basis of first innings lead.

Brief Scores

Group A

Maharashtra 245/10 & 135/4 (Ruturaj Gaikwad 61) vs Karnataka 628/5 dec (Mayank Agarwal 304*, Ravikumar Samarth 129, Karun Nair 116) at Pune

Uttar Pradesh 291/10 & 224/7 (Akshdeep Nath 110, Rinku Singh 64; Ishant Sharma 3/38) vs Delhi 269/10 (Dhruv Shorey 98*, Gautam Gambhir 86; Saurabh Kumar 4/87) at Delhi

Hyderabad 474/9 dec vs Railways 246/10 (Anureet Singh 60; T Ravi Teja 5/49) & 13/0 at Delhi

Group B

Kerala 219/10 & 191/10 (Rohan Prem 58; Parvez Rasool 5/70) vs Jammu and Kashmir 173/10 & 56/7 at Trivandrum

Gujarat 236/10 & 281/9 dec (PK Panchal 67, BH Merai 66; AH Hooda 4/79) vs Haryana 157/10 & 94/7 (SA Desai 4/38, Piyush Chawla 3/24) at Valsad

Saurashtra 553/9 dec vs Jharkhand 270/10 (Ishank Jaggi 114, Ishan Kishan 59; VM Jivrajani 4/33) & 139/1 (M Nazim Siddiqui 83*, Sumit Kumar 46*) at Rajkot

Group C

Mumbai 289/10 & 268/9 dec (Siddhesh Lad 117) vs Odisha 145/10 & 93/4 (Govinda Poddar 48*) at Bhubaneshwar

Madhya Pradesh 321/10 & 67/5 (Ayyapa Bandaru 3/26) vs Andhra 376/10 (GH Vihari 77, Ashwin Hebbar 77, DB Ravi Teja 58, B Sumanth 57, Mihir Hirwani 5/82) at Vizianagram

Baroda 521/10 vs Tripura 327/4 (SK Patel 123*, Yashpal Singh 90) at Vadodara

Group D