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

The fourth round of the ongoing season of Ranji Trophy came to an end on Saturday as the teams with stronger suits managed to win their games. Delhi made a sensational comeback on the final day and chased down the target of 252 on a wearing track. First, they scalped the remaining three wickets of Uttar Pradesh for just five runs and then despite losing Gautam Gambhir early gunned down the required runs courtesy the half-century from Nitish Rana. He was very well supported by Unmukt Chand and Milind Kumar.

Karnataka, as expected, defeated the hosts Maharashtra by an innings and 136 runs in Pune at MCA Stadium. This is the third consecutive win for Vinay Kumar led side as they scalped six wickets on the fourth day. Abhimanyu Mithun was the star of the day with a five-wicket haul and returned with the figures of 5/57 as the hosts were bundled out for 247. Hyderabad won their game against Railways by 10 wickets as Telukupalli Ravi Teja skittled them out with a sensational five-fer. His figures of 5/49 helped Hyderabad win the game and earn 7 points in an all-important encounter.

All the three encounters of Group B ended with a result as Kerala, Gujarat and Saurashtra registered victories over their opponents. Jammu and Kashmir collapsed in the second innings and were bowled out for a paltry total of 79. They lost the game by 158 and potentially lost the opportunity of upsetting Kerala after making a stellar comeback in the match on the third day. Saurashtra lost 4 wickets chasing 59 but eventually reached the total against Jharkhand to win their third consecutive match. The game between Gujarat and Haryana was a foregone conclusion on the third day itself and they completed the formalities on Saturday as Haryana was bundled out for 121 and lost by a whopping 238 runs.

Mumbai finished the spirited resistance of Odisha batsmen on the final day as they won handsomely by 121 runs. The home side could only manage 292 runs chasing a mammoth total of 413 and gave away six points to their opposition. Andhra stunned Madhya Pradesh and won by 8 wickets. MP surrendered in their second essay and could only score 119 and then the target of 65 was chased down by Andhra with the loss of only a couple of wickets. Baroda earned a crucial 3 points against Tripura despite being threatened on the final day by the visitors. AK Sarkar picked up 5/18 in the second innings and reduced the home side for 85/6 but it was too late for his side.

Chhattisgarh was humbled at home Punjab as they lost the match by an innings and 118 runs in Raipur in a group D encounter. Vidarbha won by a massive 192 runs as they skittled out Services for just 99 after setting a challenging target of 292 in front of them. Bengal couldn’t chase the target of 140 in the final session and were restricted to 65/4 at stumps on Day 4. They had a great chance to win the game but Himachal Pradesh batted well in their second chance and despite the five-fer from Mohammed Shami (5/109), they could not steal the win.

As it stands, as many as 10 matches ended in a result out of the 12 played in the fourth round of Ranji Trophy which proves the teams are looking to win the matches instead of being happy for a draw.

Brief Scores

Group A

Maharashtra 245/10 & 247/10 (Ruturaj Gaikwad 61; A Mithun 5/66) vs Karnataka 628/5 dec at Pune (Karnataka 7 points; Maharashtra 0 points)

Uttar Pradesh 291/10 & 229/10 vs Delhi 269/10 & 256/6 (Nitish Rana 67) at Delhi (Delhi 6 points; Uttar Pradesh 0 points)

Hyderabad 474/9 dec & 23/0 vs Railways 246/10 & 250/10 (Manish Rao 85*; Mehedi Hasan 4/35) at Delhi (Hyderabad 7 points; Railways 0 points)

Group B

Kerala 219/10 & 191/10 vs Jammu and Kashmir 173/10 & 79/10 (Akshay KC 5/21) at Trivandrum (Kerala 6 points; Jammu and Kashmir 0 points)

Gujarat 236/10 & 281/9 dec vs Haryana 157/10 & 121/10 (SA Desai 4/46, Piyush Chawla 5/43) at Valsad (Gujarat 6 points; Haryana 0 points)

Saurashtra 553/9 dec & 59/4 vs Jharkhand 270/10 & 341/10 (Sumit Kumar 108, M Nazim Siddiqui 99; DA Jadeja 4/108) at Rajkot (Saurashtra 6 points; Jharkhand 0 points)

Group C

Mumbai 289/10 & 268/9 dec vs Odisha 145/10 & 292/10 (Govinda Poddar 87) at Bhubaneshwar (Mumbai 6 points; Odisha 0 points)

Madhya Pradesh 321/10 & 119/10 (Ayyapa Bandaru 5/34) vs Andhra 376/10 & 65/2 at Vizianagram (Andhra 6 points; Madhya Pradesh 0 points)

Baroda 521/10 & 85/6 (AK Sarkar 5/18) vs Tripura 436/10 (SK Patel 158) at Vadodara (Baroda 3 points; Tripura 1 point)

Group D

Chhattisgarh 238/10 & 287/10 (Ashutosh Singh 119; Sandeep Sharma 4/89) vs Punjab 653/9 dec at Raipur (Punjab 7 points; Chhattisgarh 0 points)

Bengal 419/10 & 65/4 (RR Dhawan 4/36) vs Himachal Pradesh 206/10 & 353/10 (PS Khanduri 95; Mohammed Shami 5/109) at Kolkata (Bengal 3 points; Himachal Pradesh 0 points)

Vidarbha 385/10 & 223/6 dec vs Services 317/10 & 99/10 (AA Wakhare 5/16) at Nagpur (Vidarbha 6 points; Services 0 points)