A look at the happenings in the Ranji Trophy matches around the country on Friday.
Akshdeep Nath struck his second first-class hundred to put Uttar Pradesh in a strong position after they took a slender first innings lead against Delhi on day three of the Ranji Trophy Group A match.
During the fag end of the day, there was a security breach at the ground as a man in an allegedly inebriated state, drove onto the pitch before being detained by the security personnel.
In the match, in response to UP's 291, Delhi could only get to 269 after resuming the day at 228 for six with overnight batsman Dhruv Shorey running out of the partner to miss out on a deserving hundred by two runs.
In the second innings, Delhi had UP on the mat at 21 for four before Nath (batting 110) and Rinku Singh (64) forged a potentially match-winning stand of 108 runs to steer to their team to 224 for seven at stumps on day three, leading the oppostion by 246 runs.
Lad puts Mumbai ahead
Siddesh Lad's strokeful 117 and the bowlers' fine performance put Mumbai in the driver's seat against Odisha at the end of the third day in a Ranji Trophy Group "C" match with the hosts struggling at 93 for 4 in pursuit of 413 for victory.
Lad's ton, studded with 17 fours and one six, enabled Mumbai post a second innings total of 268 for 9 declared before the bowlers took over.
Resuming at the overnight 58 for 3, Mumbai lost wickets in the space of less than 30 runs including that of captain Aditya Tare. However, Lad and veteran Abhishek Nayar, who came together at 85 for 6, arrested the slide.
Lad, who looked to mix aggression with defence, added 57 runs with Nayar and another 76 runs with Akash Parkar (21) to revive his team. A ninth-wicket partnership of 42 runs with Shardul Thakur rubbed salt into Odisha's wounds and extended the lead beyond the 400-mark.
The Odisha team, which had a horror start in the first innings, losing four wickets for just two runs, lost opener Sandeep Pattanaik at 13 but Natraj Behera and captain Govind Poddar came to the rescue.
Akash Parkar struck twice late in the day to leave Odisha at 93 for 4 and facing a huge task to save the game on the final day.
Himachal fight back
Himachal Pradesh staged a brilliant fightback following-on after Ashok Dinda grabbed a five-for in a superb pace bowling display along side Mohammed Shami before the visitors reduced the deficit to six runs against Bengal in a Ranji Trophy Group D match.
In reply to Bengal's 419, Himachal, the Group D leaders, were bundled out for 206 in their first innings with Dinda grabbing 5/61 and complemented well by Shami (3/94) as the hosts enforced a follow-on in the first session.
Bengal, however, could not capitalise on their big 213- run first innings lead on an innocuous Eden wicket as Himachal ended the penultimate day at 207 for 2 when bad light stopped play in 58 overs.
Teja rules against Railways
It wasn’t quite a happy outing for hosts Railways at Karnai Singh Stadium in New Delhi on Friday. Resuming at 35/1, they lost four wickets in the morning session and failed to resist in the second too.
Debutant Ravi Teja troubled them from the word go and consistently pitched the ball in the right areas and played with the patience of the batsmen. He stuck to the outside off-stump line and had decent, but enough, movement both ways to keep the batsmen on their toes.
Scores:
In Delhi: UP 291 and 224/7 in 63 overs (Akshdeep Nath batting 110, Rinku Singh 64; Ishant Sharma 3/38). Delhi 269 in 87 overs (Dhruv Shorey 98; Saurabh Kumar 4/87).
In Pune: Maharashtra 245 and 135/4 (Ruturaj Gaikwad 61, Abhimanyu Mithun 2/32). Karnataka 628/5 (Mayank Agarwal 304 no)
In Delhi: Hyderabad 474/9 decl. Railways 246 & 13/0.
At Bhubaneshwar: Mumbai 289 all out in 99.5 overs (Prithvi Shaw 105) and 268 for 9 declared in 71 overs (Siddesh Lad 117, Prithvi Shaw 46, Suryakant Pradhan 3 for 106) vs Odisha 145 all out in 50.5 overs and 93 for 4 in 29 overs (Govind Poddar 48 batting, Akash Parkar 2 for 9).
At Vizianagaram: Madhya Pradesh 321 all out in 122.5 overs (Harpreet Singh Bhatia 88, Prithvi Raj Yarra 4 for 55) and 67 for 5 vs Andhra Pradesh 376 all out in 115.2 overs (G Hanuma Vihari 77, Ashwin Hebbar 77, D B Ravi Teja 58, B Sumanth 57, Mihir Hirwani 5 for 82).
At Vadodara: Baroda 521 all out in 152.2 overs (Vishnu Solanki 116, A Sheth 95 not out, Abhijit Karambelkar 86, A S Sarkar 3 for 88) vs Tripura 327 for 4 in 117 overs (Smit Patel 123 batting, Yashpal Singh 90, S M Singha 41, SS Mangalorkar 2 for 56).
In Kolkata: Bengal 419 vs Himachal Pradesh 206 in 56.2 overs (Sumeet Verma 64, Priyanshu Khanduri 52; Ashoke Dinda 5/61, Mohammed Shami 3/94) and f/o 207 for 2 (Prashant Chopra 81, Priyanshu Khanduri 67 batting, Nikhil Gangta 43 batting).
In Nagpur: Vidarbha 385 & 111 for 2 in 28 overs (Faiz Fazal 46) vs Services 317 in 113 overs (Nakul Verma 71, Rahul Singh 63, Ravi Chauhan 44; Akshay Wakhare 5/87).
In Raipur: Chhatisgarh 238 & 171 for 4 in 64 overs (Ashutosh Singh 81 batting) vs Punjab 653 for 9 declared in 128.1 overs (Anmolpreet Singh 267, Gurkeerat Singh 111, Jiwanjot Singh 75; Shourabh Kharwar 3/107, Prateek Sinha 3/121).
(With PTI Inputs)
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