Assam could gain their third victory in the ongoing Ranji season after having a fruitful Day Three against Group A leaders Delhi in Guwahati. Left-arm spinner Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad and leg-spinner Amit Verma took six wickets between them to get Delhi bowled out for 172, and in their chase of 165, Assam are at a relatively safe 70 for 3 in 32 overs before stumps. Unless a dramatic collapse ensues on the final day, Assam are set to leap to the second spot in the points table, overtaking Karnataka.
After gaining a lead of eight runs in a low-scoring first-innings battle, Assam faced a resistance from the top order of Delhi, who at the end of Day Two, had piled on 101 for 4 in their second innings. Runs came slowly in the following morning; the first wicket fell only 22 overs into the day, with the addition of 34 runs, but the second fell off the next bal, reducing Delhi to 135 for 6. The tail was chipped away at by Jamaluddin and Verma, for the innings to close quickly.
Assam suffered two early blows, as opener Pallavkumar Das and No. 3 Swarupam Purkayastha were dismissed for 5 and a duck respectively. But the other opener Rahul Hazarika has laid anchor, to establish a partnership of 42 with Verma, the star with the ball, that stabilised the innings. With less than four overs to go before close, however, Verma got out, leaving Delhi seven wickets to snaffle in less than 94 runs for a win on the final day.
Raina scores brisk ton
An attacking 138-ball 145 from Uttar Pradesh’s captain Suresh Raina, decorated with six sixes, has left Tamil Nadu facing a stiff task of batting the entire final day to prevent a loss. An all-round bowling performance, led by seamer Praveen Kumar’s 4 for 65, restricted Tamil Nadu to 231, and thereby take a 117-run lead. The home team, playing at Green Park in Kanpur, accelerated heavily in the second innings in an effort to convert the advantage to an outright win. Besides Raina, opener Almas Shaukat was the other chief contributor, with 75, as Uttar Pradesh declared at 273 for 5 in 62 overs.
Tamil Nadu batted eight overs before stumps, and scored five runs off them. A defeat will get their opponents overtaking them on the points table.
Scores:
Group A
Delhi 149 and 172 (Unmukt 44) vs Assam 157 & 70 for 3 in Guwahati
Odisha 529 for 6 decl. vs Haryana 216 (Saini 51, Yadav 46) and 46 for 1 in Rohtak
Bengal 528 for 8 decl. vs Maharashtra 296 for 3 (Atitkar 69, Tripathi 116 batting, Bawane 59 batting) in Pune
Team Rajasthan 216 and 226 for 9 (Saxena 54, Menaria 76, Sarvate 4 for 58) vs Vidarbha 247 (Faiz Fazal 40, Sarvate 50, Ul Haq 4 for 60) in Nagpur
Group B
Uttar Pradesh 348 and 273 for 5 decl. (Shaukat 75, Raina 145 not out) vs Tamil Nadu 231 (Vijay Shankar 92, Indrajith 44, Malolan Rangarajan 45, Praveen Kumar 4 for 65) and 5 for 0 in Kanpur.
Gujarat 311 for 9 decl. and 202 for 9 decl. (Juneja 41, Saxena 6 for 60) vs Madhya Pradesh 200 (Naman Ojha 56) and 4 for 0 in 2 overs in Surat.
Baroda 475 beat Punjab 212 (Uday Kaul 58, Yuvraj Singh 43) and 147 (Siddharth Kaul 40 not out) in Vadodara. Points: Baroda 7 (16), Punjab 0 (17)
Railways 217 and 285 for 1 in 86 overs (Wakaskar 161 batting, Ashish Singh 44, Cheluvaraj 70 batting) vs Mumbai 331 (Herwadkar 145, Iyer 57, Patil 83 not out, Karn Sharma seven for 91) in Mumbai.
Group C
Tripura 166 and 132 for 9 in 49 overs (Singh 52, Nadeem 6 for 35) vs Jharkhand 394 for 4 decl. (Anand Singh 91, Tiwary 94, Jaggi 102 not out, Kumar Deobrat 63) in Agartala
Himachal 551 vs Saurashtra 261 for 6 in 99 overs (Dodia 43, Jaydev Shah batting 96, Jani 56) in Rajkot
Services 353 and 77 for 3 in 24 overs vs Hyderabad 272 (Agarwal 50, Akshath Reddy 125) in New Delhi
Kerala 441 beat Goa 191 (Warrier 6 for 44) and 167 in Porvorim. Points Kerala 7 (19), Goa 0 (15).
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