Ranji Trophy 2017-18, Semifinals: Day 3 Round up

Rishabh Pant’s Delhi has stormed through to the Finals of the Ranji Trophy 2017-18, with a resounding win over Bengal at Pune. Vidarbha is swimming against the tide at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, where they are battling against the former champions Karnataka. It was an action-packed third day in both these encounters and here’s how both the matches panned out.

Resuming the third day with a mission to go past Vidarbha’s first innings total, Himmat Singh scored a fifty for Bengal. Accompanying him was Manan Sharma, who chipped in with a quickfire 34 off 33 balls. The duo’s imperious efforts towards the end, in addition to some other double digits scores in the tail, helped Delhi post a commanding 398 in their first innings.

By this, they earned a first-innings lead of 112 runs and made things incredibly difficult for Bengal. Mohammed Shami returned with figures of 6/122 for the side from the East. They had an uphill task of condensing the 112-run trail in the first place and then post something commendable for the bowlers to have some chance whilst defending. But they failed to even kill the trail with a horrendous batting display.

Navdeep Saini and Kulwant Khejroliya bowled magnificently to wrap Bengal inside 25 in their second innings. It was a very disappointing finish to their amazing campaign as they got bowled out for a paltry 86, gifting Delhi a win by an innings and 26 runs, inside three days. Navdeep Saini registered figures of 7/90 in the game and was awarded the man of the match.

Karnataka hold the upper hand

Karnataka could only manage to add 7 runs to their overnight total and they got bowled out for 301 in their first innings. They returned with a healthy lead of 116 runs and Vidarbha had a mountain to climb right from the outset on day 3. Unlike Bengal, Vidarbha had some fight in them and managed to push the south Indian side further.

Skipper Faiz Fazal was removed by his opposite number Vinay Kumar in the very second ball of the innings, but Wasim Jaffer and number 4 Ganesh Satish steadied the ship. Jaffer failed to play any long innings though and fell for a 48-ball 33 and Vidarbha was in trouble at 62/3. This was the period when Apoorv Wankhade and Ganesh Satish built a crucial fourth-wicket stand.

The duo added 88 runs and stood rock-solid in the crease. Satish completed a well-deserved half-century with a crunching shot through the point region. Just when they were getting their side into a good position, Wankhade fell agonizingly short of a half-century, falling to Sreenath Aravind after scoring a quickfire 49 off 48 balls.

Akshay Wadkar and Satish ensured no more wickets fell on the day. At stumps, their scorecard read 195 for the loss of four wickets in 47 overs and had a lead of 79 runs. A good partnership from here is what they need from here so that they can create some pressure on the mighty Karnataka unit.

Brief Scores

Delhi v Bengal, 1st Semifinal

Bengal 1st innings: 286 all out in 94.2 overs

Delhi 1st innings: 398 all out in 117 overs (Kunal Chandela 113, Gautam Gambhir 127, Himmat Singh 60; Mohammed Shami 6/122)

Bengal 2nd innings: 86 all out in 24.4 overs (Kulwant Khejroliya 4/40, Navdeep Saini 4/35

Player of the match: Navdeep Saini

Karnataka v Vidarbha, 2nd Semifinal

Vidarbha 1st innings: 185 all out in 61.4 overs

Karnataka 1st innings: 301 all out in 100.5 overs (Karun Nair 153, CM Gautam 73; Rajneesh Gurbani 5/94)

Vidarbha 2nd innings: 195/4 in 47 overs (Ganesh Satish 71*, Apoorv Wankhade 49; Sreenath Aravind 2/41)