On the final day of Round eight fixtures of the 2014-15 Ranji Trophy, Maharashtra booked a place in the quarter-finals with a six-wicket victory over Vidarbha, while Odisha came from behind and registered a two-wicket victory over Saurashtra to avoid relegation.
RANJI TROPHY 2014-15
Ranji Trophy, Round 8, Day 4: Maharashtra into quarters; Odisha avoid relegation
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Murali Vijay scored an unbeaten 104 to lead Tamil Nadu to victory. © Cricbuzz
Group A
After securing the all-important first-innings lead on day three, Mumbai played out a tame draw against Karnataka on the final day. With 29 points from eight games, they booked their place in the knockout stages of the tournament, finishing third in Group A, behind Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Starting the day at 19 for 0 and with a lead of 40 runs, Mumbai rode on Suryakumar Yadav's unbeaten 77 to post 223 for 8d in their second innings. Chasing a target of 245 in the final session, Karnataka managed to score 110 for 1 before stumps were drawn.
Brief scores: Mumbai 436 (Siddhesh Lad 106, Nikhil Patil 106; R Vinay Kumar 4/88) and 223/8 decl. (Suryakumar Yadav 77*; Udit Patel 4/55) drew with Karnataka 415 (Ravikumar Samarth 180, Shishir Bhavane 62; Harmeet Singh 6/139) and 110/1 (Kunal Kapoor 50; Akshay Girap 1/36).
It was heartbreak for Baroda on the final day as they missed out on qualification for the quarter-finals after a seven-wicket defeat to Tamil Nadu. The Aditya Waghmode-led team failed to defend 207 at home as Tamil Nadu, who began the day at 51 for 1, cantered home courtesy an unbeaten 104 by opener Murali Vijay. Baroda managed to take only two wickets on day four with Sagar Mangalorkar, who had scalped seven wickets in the first innings, accounting for dismissals of Baba Aparajith (10) and Dinesh Karthik (35), to finish with a match haul of 9 for 108.
Brief Scores: Baroda 149 (Saurabh Waksakar 51; Aswin Crist 4/40) and 245 (Swapnil Singh 83; Lakshmipathy Balaji 4/65) lost to Tamil Nadu 188 and 207/3 (Murali Vijay 104*; Sagar Mangalorkar 2/69) by seven wickets.
Bengal put in a Houdini act on the final day to not only save the game against Madhya Pradesh at Indore, but also ending MP's slim chances of qualifying, courtesy Wriddiman Saha's 92 and Saourasish Lahiri's 187-ball 48. Though Bengal avoided their second defeat of the tournament, they finished second from the bottom in Group A and will be relegated. Starting the day at 111 for 1, Bengal were reduced to 212 for 7, before Saha and Lahiri combined for a crucial 90-run stand for the eighth wicket and helped Bengal to a total of 303 for 8 at the close of play. For MP, pacer Puneet Datey claimed 4 for 72.
Brief scores: Madhya Pradesh 514/6 decl (Aditya Shrivastava 151; Jalaj Saxena 109; Sourasish Lahiri 3/105) drew with Bengal 219 (Sudeep Chatterjee 58*; Yogesh Rawat 5/65) and 303/8 [f/o] (Wriddhiman Saha 92; Puneet Datey 4/72).
Uttar Pradesh avoided relegation to Group C with a seven-wicket win over Railways on the final day. After conceding the first-innings lead to Railways, skipper Piyush Chawla (5 for 67) had brought UP back in the game on day three. On day four, chasing 243 to win, Eklavya Dwivedi hit 102 runs off just 73 balls to take his team home. UP registered their second win this season and finished ahead of Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir in the group.
Brief scores: Railways 345 (Mahesh Rawat 146; Praveen Kuamr 6/74) and 189 (Anustup Majumdar 40; Piyush Chawla 5/67) lost to Uttar Pradesh 292 (Mohammed Saif 86; Ranjit Mali 5/66) and 246/3 (Eklavya Dwivedi 102*; Arnab Nandi 1/33) by seven wickets.
Group B
Odisha made a remarkable turnaround at Cuttack after being dismissed for 88 in their first innings on day two, to defeat Saurashtra by two wickets on the final day. Both teams needed a win to avoid relegation, and Odisha, chasing a target of 283, found themselves in a commanding position courtesy a 155-run third-wicket association between Govinda Podder (64) and Anurag Sarangi (83). Saurashtra, however, hit back with a flurry of wickets before tailenders Deepak Behera (21*) and Basant Mohanty (10*) held their nerves to reach the target. With this win, Odisha ended their campaign placed fifth in the group, while Saurashtra with 10 points finished last.
Brief scores: Saurashtra 218 (Chirag Jani 99; Basant Mohanty 4/40) and 152 (Cheteshwar Pujara 39*; Deepak Behera 3/29) lost to Odisha 88 (Paresh Patel 27; Sudeep Tyagi 5/24) and 283/8 (Govinda Anurag Sarangi 83; Sudip Tyagi 4/45) by two wickets.
Starting the final day with a lead of just 46 runs and four wickets in hand, Vidarbha faced an uphill task to deny Maharashtra a place in quarter-finals, but that was not to be as last year's finalists beat Vidarbha by six wickets to book a place in the knockouts. Vidarbha's last four fought valiantly, courtesy Urvesh Patel's 87 and Rakesh Dhurv's 59, but Samad Fallah's 4 for 65 restricted them to 391. Chasing a target of 164, Maharashtra played with intent and ran down the target in 30.5 overs. With this win they finished second in the group, thus knocking Gujarat out. Despite the loss, Vidharbha finished third and will play the quarter-finals along with Delhi and Maharashtra from the group.
Brief scores: Maharashtra 342 (Ankit Bawne 100*; Ravikumar Thakur 3/94) beat Vidarbha 114 and 391 [f/o] (Urvesh Patel 87; Samad Fallah 4/65) by six wickets.
Group C
In a game of first-innings shoot-out, Hyderabad managed to overhaul Himachal Pradesh's total of 511, by scoring 524 for 5, courtesy skipper Hanuma Vihari's 263 to help his team take three points. Himachal Pradesh, who needed at least two points to reach the quarter-finals, managed to take only four wickets on the final day as Hyderabad scored 227 runs. Rishi Dhawan, the highest wicket-taker this season so far, removed centurion Tanmay Agarwal early in the day, but Vihari combined with Bavanaka Sandeep (70*) for a 174-run stand for the fifth wicket to deny Himachal Pradesh.
Brief scores: Himachal Pradesh 511 (Bipul Sharma 176; Paras Dogra 137; Bavanaka Sandeep 4/57) drew with Hyderabad 524/5 (Hanuma Vihari 263, Tanmay Agarwal 105; Vikramjeet Malik 2/58).
After securing the first-innings lead over Kerala, table-toppers Assam played out a tame draw, scoring just 162 runs for the loss of six wickets on the final day. Opener Pallavkumar Das top scored with 72, while KB Arun Karthik made 62. For Kerala, spinner Karaparambil Monish claimed 3 for 51. Assam, who will be playing in the quarter-finals along with Andhra, finished the group stages on 38 points and will be promoted to Group A next season.
Brief scores: Assam 344 (Tarjinder Singh 94, Rohan Prem 3/42) and 188/6 (Pallavkumar Das 72; K Monish 3/51) drew with Kerala 266 (Amit Verma 142; Pritam Das 4/74).
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