Ranji Trophy round-up: Gujarat and Karnataka post huge wins

Group B

Gambhir scored a combined total of just 4 runs in two innings

Rajasthan vs Jharkhand, Vadodara (Jharkhand 6 points, Rajasthan 0 points)

Jharkhand beat Rajasthan by 42 runs in their Group B encounter at Vadodara. Pankaj Singh’s five-wicket haul in the first innings dismissed Jharkhand to just 209 runs after choosing to bat. Still, Jharkhand managed to get a slender lead of 2 runs, thanks to Shahbaz Nadeem’s 7-74. Ishank Jaggi’s century helped Jharkhand to set a target of 279 to win. Once again, it was Nadeem, who took five wickets to seal an outright win for his team.

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Delhi vs Karnataka, Kolkata (Delhi 0 points, Karnataka 7 points)

Karnataka demolished Delhi by an innings and 160 runs inside the first three days. After being put into bat first, Delhi were dismissed for just 90 in their first innings, thanks to Sreenath Aravind’s 4-12 in just 11 overs. In return, as many as five Karnataka batsmen (R Samarth, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, K Abbas and CM Gautam) registered half-centuries and took their team to a good total of 414 on the board.

Trailing Karnataka by 324, Delhi had a herculean task in their hands. Unfortunately for them, their batsmen were never in the hunt as they kept losing wickets regularly.

K Gautam’s fifer sealed an innings win for Karnataka as they got the better of Delhi by an innings and 160 runs. Gautam Gambhir, who made a comeback to the national team in the third Test against New Zealand, scored a combined total of just 4 runs in two innings.

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Saurashtra vs Maharashtra, Vizianagaram (Maharashtra 1 point, Saurashtra 3 points)

After a historic match against Delhi, Maharashtra failed to replicate their success against their west zone rivals Saurashtra. Batting first, Saurashtra put on a mammoth 657/8 on the board, thanks to Cheteshwar Pujara’s 93, Jaydev Shah’s double ton and a century each from Chirag Jani and Sheldon Jackson.

Maharashtra needed a miracle to get past that score but they fell like nine pins as KD Patel and D Jadeja took all the 10 wickets between them to dismiss Maharashtra for just 182. Following on, Maharashtra batsmen applied themselves and showed some resistance as they batted for 130 overs to score 345 for the loss of 8 wickets and managed to salvage a point from the match.

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Vidharbha vs Assam, Trivandrum (Vidharba 3 points, Assam 1 point)

Vidharbha took home 3 points after taking the first-innings lead against Assam at Trivandrum. Riding on Ganesh Satish’s 105 and fifties from SR Ramaswamy, RL Jangid, JM Sharma and AA Sarvate, Vidharbha posted 416 on the board in the first innings.

Assam were never in the hunt to take the lead as Sarvate ran through their batting order and ended up picking five wickets. After getting dismissed for 227, Assam were asked to follow-on by Vidharba. Both the teams decided to call it off when Assam were two wickets down for 73 runs.