Maharashtra kept the upper hand on the final day of their Ranji Trophy Group B match by claiming five wickets at stumps on the third day of the Ranji Trophy Group B match here on Thursday. By the end of the day’s play, Delhi have scored 233 runs for five wickets, their total lead is just 100 runs and their five batsmen have returned to the pavilion, so that if the team loses the remaining wickets early on the last day, then it can be in trouble. Maharashtra’s bowlers will look to exploit the wicket on the fourth morning to keep the opposition’s lead below 200 runs to chase away the win.
On the third day, the Maharashtra team was dismissed for 324 runs after losing the remaining three wickets, adding just 19 runs to their night’s score. The 33-year-old Akshay Palkar brought up his maiden first-class century, having started at 94 and was dismissed for a full 100. Pacer Simarjit Singh was the most successful bowler for Delhi, taking four wickets for 69 runs while Mayank Yadav and Vikas Mishra took two wickets each. Maharashtra bowlers, who took a 133-run first innings lead, soon put Delhi under pressure by dismissing Dhruv Shorey for zero and Anuj Rawat for five.
But Captain Dhull (57 runs) and Nitish Rana (40 runs) played cautiously and managed to bring Delhi back on track. But just 10 runs after Rana was dismissed in the 35th over, Dhull also returned to the pavilion, due to which the Delhi team was again in trouble, then its score was 109 for four. Vaibhav Raval (55 runs) and Himmat Singh (67 not out) kept the scoreboard moving as Delhi looked to lose more wickets. But Raval’s dismissal reduced the score to 213 for five wickets. At stumps, the team added 20 more runs to their score.
Mumbai beat Andhra by nine wickets in Vijayanagar. Mumbai scored 331 runs in the first innings with a century from Armaan Jaffer (116 runs). The team bundled out Andhra for 238 runs in the first innings and 131 runs in the second innings. Mumbai won by scoring 40 runs on one wicket. In the other group match in Guwahati, Saurashtra scored 492 in the first innings thanks to a century from Harvik Desai (108 runs) and a double century from Jai Kohli (227 runs) before Assam got Kunal Saikia (55 not out) in the second innings. From half-century to stumps, 115 runs were scored for one wicket. Assam scored 286 runs in the first innings. Tamil Nadu declared the first innings at 510 for four in Hyderabad. Hyderabad, who scored 395 runs in the first innings, scored 28 runs in the second innings without losing a wicket till stumps.
