Ranji Trophy 2017-18, Round 5, Day 4, Review

Vidarbha and Jammu and Kashmir registered outright victories on the final day of the fifth roundof the ongoing Ranji Trophy season. All the other matches ended in a draw and most importantly Mumbai avoided an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Baroda in their 500th match of the tournament. Odisha too, outbatted Tamil Nadu in the run-fest and went past their total to earn a crucial three points against them.

Bengal avoided the innings defeat against Vidarbha but couldn’t stop them from winning the match and conceded seven points. Wriddhiman Saha fought a lone battle for the home side and scored 97 as they were bowled out for 306 to set the target of 15 runs which was chased down by Vidarbha without losing any wicket. Parvez Rasool and Aamir Aziz Sofi of J&K picked 5 wickets each and bundled out Jharkhand for 243 to register their first victory by 106 runs.

Rajasthan saved the game just thanks to the weather as only 58 overs were possible on the final day. Haryana came three wickets within an outright victory as the visitors were reduced to 59/7 until the end of the day.

Bad light stopped play as Goa lost the chance to earn the outright victory again the Services. They were kept waiting on 128/4 only 56 runs away from their target after bundling Services out for just 190 in the second innings. Odisha trumped Tamil Nadu in a run fest courtesy the contribution from the lower order. They sneaked past their score just by three runs and surprisingly there were no centuries from any of their batsmen. But five of their batters scored a half-century and made sure the team earned three crucial points.

Mumbai guarded a defensive approach on the final day and lost only three wickets as they finished the day on 260/7. Abhishek Nayar played a massive 108 balls for just 8 runs and Siddhesh Lad scored a fighting unbeaten 71 off 238 balls. Andhra and Tripura played out a thriller as the latter tried spiritedly to chase down 322 but ended the day only 50 adrift of their target. Smit Patel smashed a sensational ton and scored 107 runs off just 99 balls but it wasn’t enough to deliver the victory on the day.

The game between Maharashtra and Railways ended in a tame draw as expected and the home side took away three points on the basis of the first innings lead. Delhi conceded the lead on the last day of the game after collapsing from 277/4 to 301 all-out. KL Rahul warmed up nicely for the Test series against Sri Lanka in the second essay by scoring 92 runs as Karnataka scored 235/3. Saurashtra and Gujarat and Assam and Uttar Pradesh also shared the honours which was pretty clear on the third day itself.

Brief Scores

Group A

Uttar Pradesh 349/10 & 357/6dec (Umang Sharma 148) vs Assam 318/10 & 148/4 (S Roy 62, G Sharma 62) at Guwahati

Maharashtra 481/10 & 186/6dec vs Railways 381/10 (P Singh 73) & 54/1  at Pune

Karnataka 649/10 & 235/3 (KL Rahul 92) vs Delhi 301 ( Gautam Gambhir 144; A Mithun 5/70)  at Alur

Group B

Jammu & Kashmir 376/10 & 265/9dec (Parvez Rasool 70 ; Utakarsh Singh 3/40) vs Jharkhand 292/9 dec & 243/10 (P Rasool 5/99, A Sofi 5/63) at Jamshedpur

Haryana 223/10 & 179/5dec (S Chauhan 65) vs Team Rajasthan 150/10 & 59/7 at Lahli

Saurashtra 570/10 (Cheteshwar Pujara 182, Snell  Patel 156) vs Gujarat 413/10 (P Panchal 145, R Bhatt 107; J Unadkat 4/83) at Rajkot

Group C

Andhra 402/10 & 234/4dec vs Tripura 315/10 & 272/5  (Smit Patel 107) at Agartala

Tamil Nadu 530/8 dec (Murali Vijay 140, Baba Aparajith 109*, Vijay Shankar 100) vs Odisha 533/9 (R Dhupar 97, Natraj Behera 91) at Cuttack

Mumbai 171/10 & 260/7 (Prithvi Shaw 56, S Lad 71*) vs Baroda 575/9 dec (Aditya Waghmode 138, Swapnil Singh 164, Deepak Hooda 75, Vishnu Solanki 54) at Wankhede

Group D

Vidarbha 499/10 & 18/0 vs Bengal 207/10 & 306/10 (W Saha 97; L Yadav 4/54) at Kolkata

Services 263/10 & 190/10 (D Misal 7/68) vs Goa 270/6 & 128/4 at Delhi

Himachal Pradesh 175/10 & 167/10 (Md Shahnawaz 6/53) vs Chhattisgarh 456/10 (Rishabh Tiwari 131) at Dharamsala