Bengal wrapped up what was meant to be a four-day Ranji Trophy contest in just one and a half day after they blew away Odisha for an unbelievable 37, prompting a livid visiting team to lodge a complaint about the nature of the pitch with BCCI.
Hosts Bengal comfortably won the Group A match by 133 runs at the Bengal Cricket Academy (BCA) ground that resembled a minefield. Interestingly, the venue was hosting its first first-class match.
It was pacer Ashoke Dinda who wreaked havoc with figures of seven for 19, including a hat-trick, as Odisha were bundled out in only 19.2 overs in pursuit of their victory target of 171.
Bengal managed 142 and 135 in their two innings with eight of their batsmen failing to score a single run across both innings.
It was one of the lowest scores in the history of Ranji Trophy and easily the worst of the season so far in the country's premier domestic tournament.
So livid were the Odisha team after the game that their skipper Natraj Behera and OCA secretary Asirbad Behera confirmed that they were lodging an official complaint about the nature of the strip.
Bengal coach Sairaj Bahutule said that the pitch was same for both teams. “This was a pitch where application was the key. We applied better than them. There has been far worse pitches that I can recall from my playing days. There is no point complaining about the strip,” said the Bengal coach and former Mumbai stalwart.
Railways lead by 262 runs against Andhra
Karn Sharma returned with a five-wicket haul before Ashish Yadav cracked an unbeaten fifty as Railways dismissed Andhra for 114 and then reached 194 for eight in their second. On a day when as many as 14 wickets fell, Railways extended their lead by 262 runs with two wickets remaining.
At the draw of stumps, Ashish (55) was at the crease and giving him company was no. 10 batsman Sagar Mishra (11) at the Karnail Singh Stadium here.
Assam steady at 223 for four against Maharashtra
Having lost a day’s play due to bad light, Assam rode on Arun Karthik’s unbeaten century to make 223 for four in their Group A Ranji Trophy match against Maharashtra here today. After the visiting side won the toss, Karthik struck a watchful 105 off 225 balls with the help of 11 fours and a six.
Skipper Gokul Sharma contributed and unbeaten 59 off 103 balls, hitting 10 boundaries in the process at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium.
Saurashtra sniff victory against Kerala
Spinners Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and Vandit Jivrajani grabbed six and four wickets respectively as Saurashtra sniffed victory against Kerala here today. Saurashtra, who resumed the third day at 55 for six, conceded a nine-run first innings lead to Kerala as they were all out for 157 in the post lunch session of the third day in reply to the home team’s first innings total of 166.
Only four Kerala batsmen could cross double digit figures with number eight Akshay Chandran top-scoring with an unbeaten on 32.
Harbhajan shines, Raina out for duck as Punjab on top against UP
Skipper Harbhajan Singh’s three-wicket burst in an eight-over spell left Uttar Pradesh reeling at 205 for eight in reply to Punjab’s first innings total of 272. With another 68 runs required for the home team to ensure at least three points, Punjab are in driver’s seat at the moment courtesy their skipper’s three for 31 which included the wickets of set batsmen Umang Sharma (49) and Akshdeep Nath (35), who had added 50 runs for the fourth wicket.
Madhya Pradesh set Mumbai 280-run target
An interesting finish is on cards as Madhya Pradesh set Mumbai a tricky 280-run target with two days to go. Madhya Pradesh bowled out Mumbai for 176 to take a 78-run first innings lead and then scored 201 in their second essay as 14 wickets fell on the second day of the contest.
Mumbai now have two full days at their disposal to knock off the required runs and bag six points but the batsmen have struggled to get big scores on this track.
Haryana trail Rajasthan by 105 runs
Haryana managed to reduce their deficit to 105 runs after conceding a big first-innings lead to Rajasthan in their Group A Ranji Trophy cricket match here today.
When the stumps were drawn on the second day at the Bansi Lal Stadium, Haryana were 62 for no loss in their second innings.
Delhi reach 60/1 in reply to Karnataka’s mammoth 542
Defending champions Karnataka maintained their strong grip over Delhi in a group A Ranji Trophy encounter as they piled up a mammoth first innings score of 542, here today.
At stumps on the second day, Delhi reached 60 for one with skipper Gautam Gambhir holding fort on 33, having Dhruv Shorey (4 batting) for company. Gambhir has played 82 balls and hit three boundaries in the process.
Asnodkar hits double ton as Goa declare at 552/5
Swapnil Asnodkar hit a double century as Goa scored 552 for five declared in their first innings and then reduced Jammu & Kashmir to 43 for two on the second day of a Group C Ranji Trophy cricket match here today.
Resuming on 263 for one, overnight batsmen — Asnodkar, who was on 74, and Sagun Kamat, on 57 —went on to put up a solid 213-run partnership for the second wicket to take the team past 400-run mark.
Round Eight (Day Two):
Group A:
At Hubballi: Karnataka 542 in 149 overs (Robin Uthappa 148, Mayank Agarwal 118, Manish Pandey 81, Vinay Kumar 50, Karun Nair 39, C. M. Gautam 37, Navdeep Saini three for 85, Pradeep Sangwan three for 102) v Delhi 60 for one in 29 overs (Gautam Gambhir batting 33).
At Kolkata: Bengal 142 and 135 in 55.2 overs (Abhimanyu Easwaran 39, Sudip Chatterjee 37, Manoj Tiwary 35, Basant Mohanty five for 16) beat Odisha 107 and 37 in 19.2 overs (Ashok Dinda seven for 19, Pragyan Ojha three for 14) by 133 runs. Points: Bengal 6; Odisha 0.
At Lahli: Haryana 112 and 62 for no loss in 19 overs (Nitin Saini batting 42) v Rajasthan 279 in 88.3 overs (Ashok Menaria 47, Puneet Yadav 46, Siddharth Dobal 43, Vineet Saxena 39, Deepak Chahar 30, Mohit Sharma five for 56, Ashish Hooda three for 62).
At Pune: Assam 223 for four in 81 overs (K. B. Arun Karthik batting 105, Gokul Sharma 59, Amit Verma 32) v Maharashtra. Toss: Maharashtra.
Group B:
At Indore: Madhya Pradesh 240 and 201 (Jalaj Saxena 79, Devendra Bundela 42, Shardul Thakur three for 33, Iqbal Abdulla three for 53) v Mumbai 162 in 38.1 overs (Jalaj Saxena five for 66, Ankit Sharma five for 80).
At Kanpur: Punjab 272 in 90.3 overs (Mayank Sidhana 85, Gitansh Khera 74, Praveen Kumar four for 81, Ankit Rajpoot three for 60) v Uttar Pradesh 205 for eight in 71 overs (Umang Sharma 49, Akshdeep Nath 35, Piyush Chawla 34, Himanshu Asnora 34, Harbhajan Singh three for 31).
At New Delhi: Railways 182 and 194 for eight in 64 overs (Ashish Yadav batting 55, Saurabh Wakaskar 38, B. Sudhakar four for 49) v Andhra 114 in 50 overs (D. B. Prasanth 49, Karn Sharma five for 30, Anureet Singh three for 25).
At Tirunelveli: Tamil Nadu v Gujarat (No play).
Group C:
At Malappuram: Kerala 166 and 105 in 41 overs (Akshay Chandran 32 not out, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja six for 59, V. Jivrajani four for 31) v Saurashtra 157 in 60.4 overs (Samarth Vyas 54 not out, Chirag Jani 34, Monish Kareparambil six for 81) and 16 for one in nine overs.
At Ranchi: Jharkhand 337 in 103 overs (Shiv Gautam 122, Saurabh Tiwary 79, Ishank Jaggi 48, Anand Singh 30, Bipul Sharma six for 59) v Himachal Pradesh 133 in 36.2 overs (Ankit Kalsi 53, Shahbaz Nadeem seven for 45) and 133 in 32.1 overs (Nikhil Gangta 38, Prashant Chopra 32, Shahbaz Nadeem four for 45, Kaushal Singh three for 10) by an innings and 71 runs. Points: Jharkhand: 7 points; Himachal Pradesh 0.
At Hyderabad: Hyderabad 548 for five decl. in 173 overs (Hanuma Vihari 219, B. Sandeep 93, B. Anirudh 78, Tanmay Agarwal 45, Akshath Reddy 40) v Tripura four for one in five overs.
At Jammu: Goa 552 for five decl. in 162 overs (Swapnil Asnodkar 232, Amogh Desai 106, Sagun Kamat 105, Dharshan Misal 41, Parveez Rasool four for 169) v Jammu and Kashmir 42 for two in 11 overs.
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