Uttar Pradesh failed to enforce an outright victory for the second match in succession as they had to be content with three points by virtue of first innings lead against Saurashtra in an Elite Group match of the Ranji Trophy.
Published: Nov 14, 2011, 02:49 PM (IST)
Edited: Nov 14, 2011, 02:49 PM (IST)
Baroda crushed Madhya Pradesh by eight wickets at the Moti Bagh ground
Meerut: Nov 13, 2011
Uttar Pradesh failed to enforce an outright victory for the second match in succession as they had to be content with three points by virtue of first innings lead against Saurashtra in an Elite Group match of the Ranji Trophy.
Starting the day 175 for four, UP batsmen failed to force the pace and finally declared at 317 for seven leaving Saurashtra with an impossible target of 399 in approximately 55 overs. The visitors were in no mood to chase and crawled their way to 85 for one in 41 overs.
UP thus got three points while Saurashtra after two matches are now on one point having failed to get any in their drawn opening game against Orissa.
Former UP captain Mohammed Kaif (60) who was at the crease for 11 overs today could add only 7 runs to his overnight score of 53 before he was holed out to Sandeep Maniar off Ravindra Jadeja’s bowling.
Arish Alam who was making his first-class comeback after six years also crawled his way to 99 with the help of 14 boundaries before he was trapped leg before by Jadeja.
India’s ODI specialist finished with five for 77 — his eighth five-wicket haul at the first-class level but it was little consequence in the end.
Saurashtra’s batting approach was negative to say the least as their opener Chirag Pathak helped himself to his sixth first-class half century.
Brief Scores: UP 362 & 317/7 decl (Arish Alam 99, Mohd Kaif 60, Ravindra Jadeja 5/77) Saurashtra 281 & 85/1. Points: UP 3; Saurashtra 1.
Meanwhile, Opener D B Ravi Teja has been retained as skipper of the Hyderabad team for its Ranji Trophy plate division tie against Assam, to be held at Guwahati from November 17-20.
Hyderabad lost the previous match against Maharashtra and took the first innings lead against Jharkhand.
Team: D B Ravi Teja (c), P Akshat Reddy, G H Vihari, B Sandeep, N Arjun Yadav, Ibrahim Khaleel, Ahmed Quadri, Anwar Ahmed, Kanishk Naidu, Vishal Sharma, T Suman, P Shashank Nag, A Lalith Mohan, Mehdi Hasan, Paramveer Singh and M A Khader.
Also, Baroda crushed Madhya Pradesh by eight wickets in their Elite Group B match to go top of the table with seven points.
Requiring 54 runs to win, Baroda were 48 for two at close of play yesterday and overnight batsmen Rakesh Solanki (13)and Ambati Rayudu (10) completed the formalities in 1.2 overs this morning at the Motibag ground.
Baroda had drawn their opening match of the league stage.
Madhya Pradesh had scored 365 in their second essay courtesy Naman Ojha (94), Devendra Bundela (47) and Taduri Sudhindra (49).
For Baroda, Irfan Pathan claimed five wickets in a first class match after long time. The out-of-favour Irfan, who bowled a controlled spell, got the ball to swing as he grabbed five for 54 (his 15th five-wicket haul in first-class cricket).
Three of his five wickets were caught by ‘keeper Pinal Shah.
Baroda openers Aditya Waghmode (9) and Kedar Devhdar (20) were both dismissed thus robbing Baroda a chance to get bonus points yesterday.
It was bad luck that wicketkeeper Ojha missed a well deserved century by only 6 runs. Ojha and Bundela added 104 runs for third wicket. Another notable partnership was for the eighth wicket where Ankit Sharma and Taduri Sudhindra added 77 runs.
Brief Scores: Madhya Pradseh 63 & 365 (Naman Ojha 94; Irfan Pathan 5 for 54) lost to Baroda 375 & 54 for 2. (PTI)
