Ranji Trophy Round 7, Day 4 Roundup: Shreyas Iyer shines in Mumbai win; RP Singh picks up 5 wickets

RP Singh's five-fer helped Gujarat beat Madhya Pradesh

Mumbai’s emerging batting superstar Shreyas Iyer continued to impress with the bat as he hit a crucial 91, to set up his team’s victory against a resurgent Railways side. Chasing a tough total of 295, Mumbai's opener Akhil Herwadkar picked up from where he left in the first innings, playing an important knock of 75 on top of the order.

He had earlier scored a classy knock of 145 in the first innings and was rightly declared the Man-of-the-Match (MoM). Shreyas Iyer joined Herwadkar in the middle and the duo forged a 72-run stand. Aditya Tare and Siddesh Lad then finished things off for Mumbai, as the hosts won easily by 6 wickets.

Mumbai 331 (Herwadkar 145, Shreyas Iyer 57, Karn Sharma 6-90) and 295/4 (Iyer 91, Herwadkar 75) beat Railways 217 and 408/4 dec (Saurabh Wakaskar 185) by 6 wickets.

In the biggest upset of the day, Assam defeated Delhi by 5 wickets, in a low-scoring match in Guwahati. Arun Karthik earned the MoM award for his scores of 81 and 55* in the match.

Assam 157 and 168/5 (Hazarika 59, Arun Karthick 55*) beat Delhi 149 and 172 (Chand 44, Syed Mohammed 3-49, Verma 3-42) five wickets.

Meanwhile in Surat, RP Singh picked up his first five-wicket haul this season as Gujarat crushed Madhya Pradesh by 152 runs. MP’s Jalaj Saxena once again starred with the ball picking up a six-wicket haul in the second innings, but it wasn’t enough as the hosts won their second consecutive match.

Gujarat 311 and 202/9 dec (Juneja 41, Saxena 6-60) beat MP 200 (Naman Ojha 56, RP Singh 2-51) and 160 (RP Singh 5-33) by 163 runs.

Former South Zone players, Subramaniam Badrinath and Ganesh Satish slammed fifties as their team Vidarbha beat Rajasthan and inch closer to the quarter-finals. Chasing a modest 196 for victory, the hosts comprehensively completed the formalities and gained 6 crucial points.

Vidarbha 247 (Sarwate 50, Fazal 40, Tanvir Ul-Haq 4-60) and 199/2 (Badrinath 70*, Satish 65*) beat Rajasthan 216 and 226 (Menaria 76, Sarvate 5-58) by 8 wickets.

In a Group ‘C’ encounter, Jharkhand crushed Tripura by an innings and 67 runs in Agartala. Jharkhand’s Rahul Shukla was named the man of the match for his figures of 6/40 in the first innings. By virtue of their innings win, the visitors earned a bonus point.

Jharkhand 394/4 dec (Jaggi 102*, Saurabh Tiwary 94, Anand Singh 91) beat Tripura 166 and 161 (Nadeem 6-50) by an innings and 67 runs.

Suresh Raina's brave 145* couldn’t push his team Uttar Pradesh to a win, as Tamil Nadu fought back well to draw the match in Kanpur. Chasing a huge total of 391 for a win, TN batted well and finished at 212/4, before the captains agreed to a draw.

Tamil Nadu 231 (Vijay Shankar 92, Praveen Kumar 4-65) and 212/4 (Mukund 71, Aparajith 71) drew with UP 348 and 273/5 dec (Raina 145*, Shaukat 75).

Other Results at the end of Day four:

Bengal 528/8 dec (Chatterjee 147, Easwaran 65, Mondal 58) and 100/1 drew with Maharashtra 406 (Tripathi 132, Bawne 65, Mukesh Kumar 2-41).

Haryana 216 (Saini 51, Mohanty 3-51, Pradhan 3-53) and 250/4 (Bishnoi 86*, Saini 64) drew with Odisha 529/6 dec (Natraj Behera 255*, Ranjit Singh 112).

Saurashtra 437 (Jaydev Shah 146, Rishi Dhawan 2-68) drew with Himachal 551 (Prashant Chopra 187, Bist 101, Gangta 77, Unadkat 4-69).

Hyderabad 272 (Akshath 125, Agarwal 50, Pathania 3-55) and 140/3 (Akshath 72*) drew with Services 353 (Chatterjee 156, Ravi Kumar 3-62) and 217/7 dec.