Ranji Trophy, Round 3, Day 4: Punjab record thrilling win

Punjab chased down 204 in under just over 50 overs, striking at almost four runs an over to complete a memorable Ranji Trophy win over Maharashtra in Pune. Also, after a sluggish start to their 2014-15 Ranji Trophy campaign, 40-time champions, Mumbai recorded their first win of the season over hosts, Uttar Pradesh by 8 wickets. Meanwhile, defending champions, Karnataka, completed their 100% start to their 2014-15 campaign with a third outright win on the trot. Perennial heavyweights Delhi also recorded an innings win over Rajasthan.

Group A

Karnataka vs Railways, Delhi

Karnataka extended their lead on the fourth morning to 250 riding on a brisk 97 by Robin Uthappa. The defending champions declared at 174/5 in their second essay in a bid to force their third consecutive outright win. Pacer, Abhimanyu Mithun, then claimed 5 wickets to bowl Railways out for 114 and gave the seven-time champs their third win on the trot.

Brief Scores: Karnataka 247 (CM Gautam 64, Kunal Kapoor 53, Upadhyay 7/98) and 174/5(d) (Robin Uthappa 97,KK Nair 63; Anureet Singh 3/67) beat Railways 171 (A Kaushik 59; Aravind 4/43) and 114 (Anustup Majumdar 26*; A Mithun 5/31) by 136 runs.

Uttar Pradesh vs Mumbai, Kanpur

Wilkin Mota and Shardul Thakur took seven wickets among themselves to bowl Uttar Pradesh out for 161 in their second innings giving Mumbai a target of 98 to chase, in-order to score their first outright win of the tournament. Suryakumar Yadav scored an important 47 as Mumbai completed an eight-wicket win. Fast bowler, Shardul Thakur, was the star of the match for the visitors, with match figures of 9/123 that included a six-for in the first innings.

Brief Scores: Uttar Pradesh 206 (T Srivastava 67, P Gupta 41, Shardul Thakur 6/53) and 161 (Umang Sharma 60; W Mota 4/30) lost to Mumbai 270 (Shradul Thakur 87, Shreyar Iyer 75, Amit Mishra 4/63) and 98/2 (S Yadav 47*; A Rajpoot 2/34) by 8 wickets.

Baroda vs Jammu and Kashmir, Vadodara

Jammu & Kashmir secured a crucial 71-run first innings lead after centurion Ram Dayal took three early wickets in the morning to bowl the hosts out for 426. In their second innings, J&K were reduced to 147/9 by Sagar Mangalorkar who snaffled six wickets, including that of first-innings centurion Parvez Rassol. The match was drawn with J&K getting the three points on account of their first innings lead.

Brief Scores: Jammu and Kashmir 497 and 147/9 (Bandeep Singh 31; S Mangolkar 6/46), Baroda 426 (Wakaskar 172, Ram Dayal 4/94), Match Drawn.

Tamil Nadu vs Madhya Pradesh, Chennai

A Dinesh Karthik century gave a following-on Tamil Nadu to set Madhya Pradesh, a target of 181, for an outright win. Three early wickets from Rahil Shah gave the hosts an outside chance before Naman Ojha scored an assured fifty to draw the match and give MP the three points by virtue of their first innings lead.

Brief Scores: Madhya Pradesh 432 (Jalaj Saxena 144, Bundela 104; M Rangarajan 7/135) and 112/4 (N Ojha 59*; Rahil Shah 3/32). Tamil Nadu 248 (Ramaswamy Prasanna 78; Ankit Sharma 5/103) and 369 (Dinesh Karthik 129; Saransh Jain 5/50). Match Drawn.

Group B

Delhi vs Rajasthan, Delhi

On the back of Unmukt's dazzling innings of 146, Delhi declared at 380/6, giving them a lead of 239. Rajasthan, in their second essay, fared only slightly better than they had done in their first, and were unable to prevent the hosts from recording an innings victory.

Gujarat vs Saurashtra, Rajkot

After Gujarat took a first innings lead of 41, Saurashtra, riding on Sheldon Jackson's scintillating hundred, declared their second innings at 364/5, setting Gujarat a target of 324 on the final day to complete an outright win. Priyank Panchal scored a solid fifty to ensure there were no jitters in the Gujarat camp as they motored along to 130/2 to draw the match.

Brief Scores: Gujarat 248 (Smit Patel 105, Priyank Panchal 38; D Jadeja 5/74) and 130/2 (Panchal 75*) , Saurashtra 207 (Sheldon Jackson 48; Akshar Patel 4/72) and 364/5(d) (Sheldon Jackson 156, Akshar Patel 2/101). Match drawn

Haryana vs Vidarbha, Rohtak

Inclement weather conditions in Rohtak ensured there was very little playing time in this keenly contested battle between Haryana and Vidarbha. The slender two-run first innings lead taken by hosts, Haryana, gave them the crucial 3 points.

Brief Scores: Vidarbha 154 (Faiz Fazal 46, Joginder Sharma 5/46) and 23/2 , Haryana 156 (Khod 38*, Thakur 4/38). Match Drawn.

Maharashtra vs Punjab, Pune

Harbhajan Singh and Gurkeerat Singh Mann struck valiant fifties to give Punjab an outright win over hosts, Maharashtra, in Pune. Chasing 204 for the win, in just over 50 overs, the visitors reached the target in the final over of the day's play to complete a memorable 3-wicket win. The outright win gave Punjab six points.

Brief Scores: Maharashtra 210 (R Tripathi 56, S Kaul 3/46, Maninder SIngh 2/42) and 259/3d (Jadhav 109*, Kaul 1/32) lost to Punjab 391 (Yuvraj Singh 136, Jiwanjot Singh 68, Fallah 3/78) and 205/7 (Gurkeerat Singh 72*) by 3 wickets.

Group C

Services vs Andhra, Delhi

CV Stephen and D Vijaykumar took three wickets apiece for Andhra but were unable to prevent Services from taking a crucial 52-run first innings lead. Fifties from Rajat Paliwal and Yashpal Singh ensured that Services crossed Andhra's first innings score to give add three points to the board.

Brief Scores: Andhra 234 (AG Pradeep 59, R Raj 4/77, D Punia 4/60) and 19/1. Services 286 (Rajat Paliwal 72, Yashpal Singh 57; Vijaykumar 3/67), Match Drawn.

Goa vs Himachal Pradesh, Goa

Himachal Pradesh ended their first innings on 381 early on Day 5, giving them a crucial 24-run first innings lead, before bowling bowling out Goa a second time, for 184. By virtue of their first innings lead, HP took home 3 points.

Brief Scores: Goa 357 (Darshan Misal 97, Robin D'Souza 67) and 184 (Sagun Kamat 58, Darshan Misal 51; Gurvinder Singh 3/46), HP 381/9 (Ankit Kalsi 115, Gauresh Gawas 3/75). Match Drawn.

Kerala vs Hyderabad, Kerala

Captain, Sachin Baby's double century ensured that Kerala took a first innings lead of 177 over the visiting Hyderabad side. However, in their second innings, Akshath Reddy and Tanmay Agarwal scored fine centuries to deny Kerala any chance of an outright victory as the match ended in a draw.

Brief Scores: Hyderabad 270 (Hanuma Vihari 76, Ibrahim Khaleel 65*, Anthaf 5/61) and 249/1 (Agarwal 110, A Reddy 104*), Kerala 447/7(d). (Sachin Baby 200*, Ashish Reddy 3/76). Match Drawn.

Jharkhand vs Tripura, Dhanbad

Having conceded a first innings lead of 220, Ishank Jaggi scored a magnificent double hundred to propel Jharkhand to 409 in their second essay and denied visitors Tripura an outright victory. The visitors excellent performances with the bat and the ball gave them a vital three points at Dhanbad.

Brief Scores: Jharkhand 142 (K Deobrat 75; Rana Dutta 5/64) and 409 (I Jaggi 201*; Murasingh 4/107), Tripura 362 (Bishal Ghosh 76, Rakesh Solanki 67; Shahbaz Nadeem 3/67). Match Drawn.