Tamil Nadu’s last-8 hopes take a blow after MP draw
GROUP A
Tamil Nadu’s hopes of advancing to the Ranji Trophy knockouts suffered a blow after theGroup“C”gameagainstMadhya Pradesh ended in a tame draw on the final day.
Needinganoutrightwininthe two remaining games to keep its hopes of advancing alive, Tamil Nadu could only manage a first innings lead, which pegged it back in the race.
Havingconcededa62-runlead tothevisitors,MPbattedtillteato ensurearatherdullday,making 351 for 4 declared in 102.5 overs.
Tamil Nadu was at 79 for 1 in pursuit of an improbable290 in a session for victory when the game ended. The visiting team got three points to take its tally to 11 from five matches with one game against Baroda to go.
Resuming at the overnight score of 142 for 1, the partnership betweenRajitPatidar andShubhamSharmadidn’textendfortoo long with the former falling to K Vignesh for 89 after adding 114 runs.
The talented young Sharma was thenext to go, caught byMS WashingtonSundaroffVYomahesh for 56 with the score on 172.
VigneshremovedMPskipper Devendra Bundela (17) at 208 to give Tamil Nadu some hope, but Harpreet Singh Bhatia (100 not out) and Ankit Dane (65 not out) thwarted whatever little hopes therivalshadwitha143-runpartnership. Andhra currently lead Group C with 19 points from six matches followed by Madhya Pradesh with 15 and Mumbai on 14.TamilNaduarefourthwith11.
In Group A, Hyderabad rompedtothethirdpositionafter beating Assam by four wickets. Followingonafterbeingshotout for just 136 in reply to Hyderabad’s 326, Assam scored 331 thanks to a brave 122 by Amit Sinha.Hyderabadhoweveroverhauled the target to take six points.
InGroupB,KeralabowlersKC Akshay, Sijomon Joseph and Jalaj Saxena picked up seven wickets in unison to bundle out Saurashtrafor 95runsinthesecond innings, helping their side register a 309-run victory at the Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram. At Guwahati Hyderabad 326 &144/6 (A Rayudu 52*) beat Assam 136 & F/O 331 (A Sinha 122) by 4 wickets. Points: Hyd 6 Assam 0
At Kanpur: Karnataka 655 & 262/0 (M Agarwal 133*, R Samarth 126*) drew with Uttar Pradesh 331 (U Sharma 89). Points: Karnataka 3 Uttar Pradesh 1
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