Ranji Trophy HIGHLIGHTS, Day 4: Maharashtra-Mumbai draw as Andhra qualifies, quarterfinal teams confirmed

• QF1: Bengal (A1) v Jharkhand (C2)
• QF2: Saurashtra (B1) v Punjab (D2)
• QF3: Karnataka (C1) v Uttarakhand (A2)
• QF4: Madhya Pradesh (D1) v Andhra (B2)
  

It’s a draw! Mumbai falls 58 runs short of the quarterfinals, Maharashtra four wickets. That said, Ajinkya Rahane’s men have indeed served a lesson for the visiting side. Andhra joins Saurashtra as the second team from Elite Group B. What a season.

Suved has gotten off to a quick start as Mumbai crosses 180 in 26 overs. The target is still 73 away.

Mumbai is six wickets down and suddenly all is not lost for Maharashtra! Veer cleans up half-centurion Divyaansh and all Maharashtra needs is four wickets to qualify.

Veer cleans up Deshpande in his first over. Mumbai has lost half its men for 133 runs.

Armaan Jaffer falls on 16 as Bachhav strikes. Divyaansh Saxena is nearing his fifty for Mumbai and is keeping the fight going.

Ajinkya Rahane and Tanish Kotian fall in succession even as Mumbai continues to keep the scoring rate up.

Ajinkya Rahane charges for Mumbai despite Yashasvi Jaiswal’s early dismissal. Mumbai goes past 50 in just 7 overs. MUM needs 198 to win.

https://twitter.com/sportstarweb/status/1618906751893667840

Maharashtra is finally all out for 252. Mumbai’s target is 253 runs off 28 overs. Can Yashasvi Jaiswal and Co. make a match of it?

Prerak Mankad stays for just two deliveries. He is trapped leg before and Ajith Ram secures his career-best haul. 188/9.

Samarth Vyas stepped out and tried to heave the ball over covers. He gets a bottom edge and Vijay Shankar trollies some 25-yards from mid on to collect the catch. Ajith Ram completes a fifer. SAU 186/8 and still 80 away from the target.

Dharmendrasinh is castled by Ajith Ram. Harvik Desai wages on for Saurashtra. He found his first maximum of the innings, a lofted shot over long on. Nicely set, this one!

Goa has nearly pared the scores but at the cost of six wickets. Arjun Tendulkar and Darshan Misal are the batters out in the middle. Chhattisgarh four wickets away from securing a win. Goa still 29 runs in the deficit.

Jadeja is given out. He attempts a reverse sweep and is caught at slip by Baba Aparjith. He is visibly unhappy about the decision. HIs namesake Dharmendrasinh joins Desai. 108 away from the target.

The defending champion looks like conceding a lead to Tripura. Rana Datta has picked five wickets so far. Avesh Khan and Anubhav Agarwal at crease for MP as it trails by 142.

Harvik Desai brings up his fifty with a boundary past covers. Six fours in his 143 ball stay at crease. Slowly but surely, his innings is taking Saurashtra home.

Bihar has taken the lead in the plate final. Nawaz Khan’s fifer allows Bihar to bowl out Meghalaya for 337 runs. A lead worth 209 runs.

Siddharth finally gets the breakthrough. Arpit Vasavada is leg before wicket on 45. Ravindra Jadeja is the new man.

Shayan Acharya: Maharashtra lost four early wickets in the first session of the final day, before heading to lunch at 151-6, with Azim Kazi (not out 47) and Saurabh Nawale (not out 24) forging an unbroken 50-run partnership.

Mumbai, however, will be disappointed as Yashasvi Jaiswal dropped Nawale at gully for a solitary run off a Mohit Avasthi delivery. And making optimum use of the reprieve, Nawale went on forging a steady partnership with Kazi.

While it looked evident that Mumbai was eyeing an outright win in a bid to reach the quarterfinals, Maharashtra batters tried steadying the ship after its middle-order crumbled.

Avasthi made the most of the conditions in the morning to send Vicky Ostwal packing early, and in the next over, Shams Mulani got the big wicket of Kedar Jadhav. The seasoned Jadhav scored a century in the first innings, but in the second innings, he ended up being caught behind by Prasad Pawar for just two.

Mumbai tightened the noose further, dismissing Siddhesh Veer and Ankit Bawane, but Maharashtra regrouped with Kazi and Nawale around.

Vasavada and Desai, unbeaten on 39 and 36 respectively, have seen Saurashtra close the first session at 93/4. A remarkable recovery from 18/4 early in the morning. With Jadeja still left, Saurashtra would fancy its chances in the contest. 173 away from the target.

Uttarakhand is bowled out for 269 runs. Avneesh Sudha was the top scorer with 62 as his team ends with a 36-run lead. Uttarakhand will advance to the knockouts as the second team from Elite Group A.

Lunch at Eden Gardens sees Odisha end at 40/1. Anurag Sarangi is unbeaten on 24 and hit five fours. Senapati on 12 off 11 deliveries. Just 72 away from home.

Vasavada and Desai have steadied the ship. They’ve punished the bad balls, been quick between the wickets and used their feet well. Still a long way to go but Saurashtra has made a mini-comeback of sorts.

V.V. Subrahmanyam: Delhi records a nine-wicket win against Hyderabad to ensure that the home team stays at the bottom of the points table with just one point from seven games, losing six straight games. Not surprisingly Hyderabad relegated to Plate Division of the Ranji Championship

An early hiccup for Odisha as Ishan Porel gets the wicket of Shantanu Mishra. The man in form Subhransu Senapati walks out to bat.

Chasing a target of 47 runs, Delhi had the perfect chance to end its season with a bonus point win. Yash Dhull, however, falls to Kartikeya Kak. Delhi 29/1, needs 18 more to win.

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Y.B. Sarangi: Bengal 276 all out in 79 overs in its second innings, Abhimanyu Easwaran 101, Manoj Tiwary 52, Sudip Gharami 50, Sunil 6/96, Basant Mohanty 2/33.

Basant Mohanty chaired off the ground by his teammates after bowling in his last innings.

A 183-run defeat to Services will end Rajasthan’s campaign. Jharkhand is now set to qualify along with Karnataka from Elite Group C.

V. V. Subrahmanyam: Hyderabad bowled out for 124 with pacers Harshit Rana returning with figures of 7 for 45 and Divij Mehra three for 34. Delhi chases a modest target of 47 runs.

Shayan Acharya: Maharashtra 68 for 5. Mumbai bowlers have dominated the first session so far. Veer falls to Avasth on 38.

Sheldon Jackson rocks to the backfoot and is trapped plumb in front by Ajith Ram. Saurashtra is frittering away now.

M Siddarth hits the top of off as Jani falls cheaply. Saurashtra loses its third wicket as Sheldon Jackson walks in.

Shams Mulani cleans up Kedar Jadhav for 2. Maharashtra is in some trouble as skipper Ankeet Bawane joins Siddhesh Veer.

Shayan Acharya: Final day at the Brabourne Stadium. Maharashtra loses Vicky Ostwal early in the day as Mohit Avasthi strikes.

Ajith Ram removes nightwatchman Sakariya by turning one in to hit the leg-stump. Chirag Jani walks in at 4 for Saurashtra

Harvik Desai and nightwatchman Chetan Sakariya are back out in the middle for Saurashtra. TN needs nine wickets while the visitor needs a daunting 262 runs on a turning track.

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It’s going to be a thrilling final day in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group matches with Mumbai and Maharashtra playing out an unpredictable script. With the first-innings tie, the teams need to eke out an outright result from their respective second innings. A thriller for sure.

Riding on Sagar Udeshi’s five for 62, Pondicherry grabbed the first-innings honours on the third day of its Group C Ranji Trophy match against Kerala here at the Siechem Stadium on Thursday.

After bundling out the visitors for 286, Paras Dogra and Jay Pande saw off the day without fuss as Pondicherry went ahead by 119 runs heading into the final day.

Kerala would have been hopeful of staging a comeback after Basil Thampi trapped Neyan Kangayan in front in the third over with a delivery that seamed in.

Earlier, Pondicherry reaped the rewards of patience and planning. Udeshi bowled 17 wicketless overs in the first session. He spun the ball into overnight batters Sachin Baby (39, 125b, 3x4) and Salman Nizar (44, 126b, 3x4, 1x6), who refrained from going for the big hits on the leg-side, as it was manned by two fielders in the deep.

-Dhruva Prasad

Karnataka recorded a thumping nine-wicket win over Jharkhand on the third day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘C’ encounter at the Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpur on Thursday.

The victory took the Mayank Agarwal-led side to 35 points from seven games, helping it seal top spot. Its quarterfinal opponent will be known on Friday after the rest of the matches conclude.

Karnataka’s star on day three was offie K. Gowtham finishing with five wickets (28-5-75-5) to take his match haul to nine wickets. From an overnight 85 for two, Jharkhand could score just 201, setting Karnataka a 66-run target.

The visitors knocked off the runs in 18.1 overs with Nikin Jose remaining unbeaten on 42 (45 n.o., 9x4) and R. Samarth on 24 (62b, 2x4).

-N. Sudarshan

The scores were levelled at 384. Mumbai needed one run to take the much-needed first-innings lead against Maharashtra to reach the quarterfinals of the ​Ranji Trophy.​

Everything looked in the home team’s favour until Vicky Ostwal struck on the final delivery before tea as Tanush Kotian’s sweep shot cost him his leg stump. And with that, Mumbai’s hopes of reaching the playoffs were also dented.

Unless Mumbai miraculously pulls off an outright win on the final day on Friday, Maharashtra will end its campaign on 26 points and pave the way for Andhra (also on 26 points) to qualify from Elite Group B as the second team - along with Saurashtra - on the virtue of more bonus points won.

-Shayan Acharya

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Banishing the demons of self-doubt arising out of fitness concerns, Ravindra Jadeja signalled his arrival for the Australia series. His seven for 53 enabled Saurashtra​
​chasing the game, bundle out Tamil Nadu for 133 in its second innings.

Saurashtra, having conceded a lead of 132, was still set a daunting 266 on a deteriorating surface on day three of the Ranji clash at Chepauk.

-S. Dinkar

When to watch Ranji Trophy 2022/23?

Ranji Trophy Round 7 fixtures will start from Tuesday, January 24 from 9:30 AM IST.

Where to watch Ranji Trophy 2022/23 on TV?

A select number of tournament matches are being telecast on Star Sports 2 and Star Sports 2 HD. The telecast also provides updates and scores from all matches at regular intervals.

Where to live stream Ranji Trophy 2022/23?

The streaming of the Ranji Trophy matches will be available on Disney+ Hotstar app.