NCA in sight of victory

A fighting century from Sachin Rana (118, 153b, 12x4, 3x6) was the lone bright spot for Haryana CA as the National Cricket Academy cemented their advantage on the third day of the final match in the KSCA all-India invitational Dr K Thimmappaiah memorial cricket tournament here at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday. 

Needing a huge 657 to claim the important first innings lead, Haryana kept losing wickets at regular intervals and eventually made only 277/9 in 80.5 overs, to concede a mammoth lead of 379 runs. 

To further drive home NCA’s advantage, Kuldeep Hooda did not bat as he was nursing an injury. 

NCA had the option of asking Haryana to follow on but they did not exercise it and found themselves at 20/3 in seven overs at stumps, to lead by 399 runs.  While they would have wanted all their wickets to be intact, they will go on to seal the win on the last day barring a miracle. 

Earlier, Haryana CA were staring down the barrel at 88/5 in the first session before Rana and Joginder Sharma (28) steadied the boat with a partnership of 67 runs. A rush of blood cost Joginder his wicket as his skier off Kuldeep Yadav was safely pouched by Deepak Hooda at mid-off.

Rana on song

Meanwhile, Rana just went through the gears and brought up his ton when he lofted part-timer Chirag Khurana over long off for a big six. It was a surperb innings under pressure but it did not last long as he was castled soon after by Nathu Singh. Jayant Yadav (35) and Yuzvendra Chahal (34) hung around at the end to delay the inevitable but it was a case of too little too late. 

Deepak Chahar (3/55), Veerpratap Singh (2/23) and Kuldeep (2/89) all got in amongst the wickets.



Brief scores: NCA: 656 all out and 20/3 in 7 overs vs Haryana CA: 277 all out in 80.5 overs (Sachin Rana 118, Joginder Sharma 28, Jayant Yadav 35, Yuzvendra Chahal 34; Deepak Chahar 3-55, Kuldeep Yadav 2-89, Veerpratap Singh 2-23).