Left-arm spinners Aditya Dhumal and Vishal Dabholkar took nine wickets between them as Mumbai beat Uttar Pradesh by 121 runs in the sixth round Group A 2016-17 Ranji Trophy game. A sixth-wicket pair of Sreevats Goswami and Aamir Gani denied Tamil Nadu an outright win in Rajkot.
Railways vs Baroda in Nagpur: Baroda 183/10 (Dhiren Mistry 50, Kedar Devdhar 45; Avinash Yadav 5/50, Karn Sharma 3/57) & 239 (Deepak Hooda 98, Avinash Yadav 3/50) lost to Railways 310/10 (S Wakaskar 104, M Rawat 72, S Shukla 51, A Sheth 4/54, B Pathan 3/54) & 113/2 (Saurabh Wakaskar 45, Babashafi Pathan 2/26) by 7 wickets
They had to wait long for their first win this season, but eventually Railways recorded their first win in style after beating Baroda by seven wickets in Nagpur. Needing just 23 runs, Railways got to the mark in only 20 balls that helped them get six points. The win helped them move to the second-last position in the table while Baroda slipped to the last place after their second loss this season. Baroda are still in search of their first win.
Uttar Pradesh v Mumbai in Mysore: Mumbai 233/10 (Surya Kumar Yadav 99, Kuldeep Yadav 4/46) & 286 (Suryakumar Yadav 90; Saurabh Kumar 3/48, Kuldeep Yadav 3 for 77) lead Uttar Pradesh 225 225/10 (R Singh 70, K Yadav 50, T Deshpande 3/66, A Nayar 2/19, V Dabholkar 2/26, A Dhumal 2/33); & 43/1 (Shivam Chaudhary 28; Shardul Thakur 1/16) by 252 runs.
In the most exciting contest of the day, left-arm spinners Aditya Dhumal (5/53) and Vishal Dabholkar (4/43) handed Mumbai their third win in five matches. Uttar Pradesh, who needed 232 runs on the final day started positively overnight batsmen Shivam Chaudhary (50) and Samarth Singh (42) sharing a 81-run stand for the second wicket. Their partnership ended by debutant Dhumal gave Mumbai the much-needed opening and the defending champions never looked back. Uttar Pradesh lost the third wicket for 105 and instead of building partnerships, they were surprisingly bowled out for just 173 runs. The two spinners shared nine wickets between them with Dhumal taking his overall match tally in his first first-class game to seven wickets.
Bengal vs Tamil Nadu in Rajkot: Bengal 337/10 (S Chatterjee 100, A Pan 59, Vignesh K 4/70, AR Srinivas 3/67) & 196/9 (Sreevats Goswami 61, Washington Sundar 3/29) drew with TN 354/10 (Dinesh Karthik 80, Kaushik Gandhi 65, Sayan Ghosh 5/123)
Tamil Nadu earned three points after their game against Bengal ended in a draw. Once Sayan Ghosh completed his first five-wicket haul early on the fourth day, Bengal in their second essay seemed edgy after being reduced to 66/5. It was then that wicket-keeper Sreevats Goswami received support from 20-year-old off-spinner Aamir Gani. The two batted for over 20 overs and added 87 runs for the sixth wicket before Gani was dismissed. Tamil Nadu had another shot at victory when Goswami was dismissed for 61 by Aushik Srinivas, but a 27-run stand between Ashoke Dinda and Pragyan Ojha for the eight-wicket helped Bengal consume more overs. The 10th wicket-partnership lasted 15 balls as Bengal held on to a draw.
Gujarat vs Madhya Pradesh in Nagothane: Gujarat 302/10 (M Juneja 79, C Sakure 4/65, G Yadav 3/57) & 324 (Parthiv Patel 139*, Samit Gohel 104; Ishwar Pandey 4/69) drew with MP 252/10 (R Patidar 71, Rush Kalaria 4/72, A Patel 2/50) & 176/5 (Harpreet Singh 103*, Naman Ojha 52; Rush Kalaria 3/38)
The match held in Nagothane ended in a draw with Gujarat taking three points owing to a first innings lead. Led by captain Parthiv Patel’s unbeaten 139 and opener Samit Gohil 104, Gujarat declared their second innings on 324/9, setting Madhya Pradesh a target of 375 runs.
With his side struggling at 37/4, Harpreet Singh walked at No. 6 and played a counter-attacking inning that helped Madhya Pradesh avoid what looked like a defeat at one stage. He reached his half-century in 63 balls and got a partnership going with Naman Ojha (52). Harpreet hit 17 boundaries and one six and remained unbeaten on 103 off 129 balls as the match ended in a draw with Madhya Pradesh on 176/5 in 58 overs.
