Mumbai, TN open victory accounts
Mumbai and Tamil Nadu give the 2009/10 Ranjit Trophy Super League its first set of result producing matches in the third round of the season.
Group A
Hyderabad 236 (Anirudh 61, Trivedi 5-39) and 2 for 0 drew with Gujarat 536 (R Bhatt 186, P Patel 105)
The Uppal encounter ended in a tame draw after Rujul Bhatt and Parthiv Patel’s centuries took Gujarat to 536. Bhavik Thaker (54) moved ahead from his overnight score of 37 to get a half-century before falling out to medium pacer Mohammad Khader. Off-spinner Pragyan Ojha, who has been released from the national squad to play for Hyderabad finished with two wickets, those of centurion Rujul Bhatt and half-centurion Niraj Patel. The Hyderabad openers had to come out to bat for two overs before the match was declared a draw.
Mumbai 162 (Malik 6-33) and 335 for 7 dec (Agarkar 102, Mukesh Sharma 4-95) beat Himachal Pradesh 246 (Thakkar 88, Abdulla 4-48) and 166 (Harmeet Singh 3-38, Abdulla 3-61) by 85 runs
After their first match against Orissa was washed out due to rain, the defending champions have registered their first outright victory of the season by beating HP by 85 runs at Mumbai. After being dismissed for a paltry 162 in the first innings, Mumbai came back wonderfully to score 335 in their second chance, mainly due to a pugnacious hundred from Ajit Agarkar. The bowlers did a commendable job on the final day to dismiss HP for 166, chasing a target of 251. Three wickets each from pacer Iqbal Abdulla and left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh spurred the HP downfall as they were all-out in 67 overs. While Agarkar contributed with scores of 45 and 102 in the match, Abdulla displayed his all-round abilities with seven wickets in the match and a half-century in the second innings.
Railways 307 for 8 dec (Cheluvaraj 88) drew with Orissa 132 for 4
The rain-marred contest at Bhubaneshwar ended in a tame draw after Orissa scored 132 for 4 in the 79 overs bowled on day four.
Punjab 228 (Dharmani 83) and 248 (Dharmani 56, Ashwin 5-116) lost to Tamil Nadu 521 (Vijay 148, d Karthik 117) by an innings and 45 runs
Riding on the brilliant centuries from Murali Vijay and Dinesh Karthik, R Ashwin and Aushik Srinivas ripped through the Punjab batting in Amritsar to give the visitors a stunning innings triumph. Veteran batsman Pankaj Dharmani’s lone effort in both innings proved too little in the end as none of the other batsmen converted the start into something significant.
Group B
Bengal 324 (Banerjee 107, Vinay Kumar 3-75) and 213 for 6 (M Tiwary 65*) drew with Karnataka 523 for 9 dec (A Verma 157, Lahiri 5-157)
Karnataka declared their innings at the overnight score of 523 for 9 with a lead of 199 runs with centuries from KB Pawan (134), Amit Verma (157) and CM Gautam (108). Bengal easily survived the day with four wickets still standing. While the top six batsmen crossed the double figure-mark, Manoj Tiwary and the ICL returnee Deep Dasgupta (55) made the visitors secure with their fifties. Bengal hence bagged three points for the first innings lead as the contest did not yield any result.
Saurashtra 544 for 3 dec (Pujara 204) drew with Maharashtra 289 (Bhosale 82, Jobanputra 4-55) and 162-5 (Jadhav 111*, Dhruv 3-71)
Kedar Jhdhav emerged as Maharashtra’s saviour as his unbeaten knock of 111 runs bailed them out of an innings defeat against Saurashtra. Chasing Saurashtra’s 544 in the first innings, Maharashtra were bundled out for 289 in the first innings, mainly due to Jobanputra’s fifer. Their batting effort got worse from bad in the second innings after they were asked to follow on, as they were struggling at 48 for 3. As his partners kept changing at the other end, Jadhav continued resolutely to see his team home safely for a draw.
Baroda 234 (I Pathan 59, Chawla 4-47) and 331 (Williams 96, Y Pathan 78, Gupta 4-83) drew with Uttar Pradesh 240 (Chawla 65, M Patel 4-61) and 8 for 1
UP finish the Ghaziabad encounter with three points in their kitty on the basis of their first innings lead over Baroda. Connor Williams, who was batting at 21 overnight, fell four short of his hundred as left-arm spinner Praveen Gupta accounted for his wicket. Gupta added the scalps of Yusuf Pathan, Pinal Shah and Swapnil Singh to finish with four wickets in the innings. Yusuf contributed well with his 78 in the second innings, while Piyush Chawla finished the match with a half-century and five wickets.
