Poor Mumbai concede huge first innings lead
BELGAUM: Hosts Karnataka gained the upper hand by taking a massive first innings lead over Mumbai in their Elite Group A Ranji Trophy game Thursday.
Karnataka bundled out Mumbai for a meagre 205 in reply to their own 400 to take a huge 195run first innings lead at the KSCA Stadium here.
At stumps on the penultimate day of the four-day game, Karnataka were 81 for three with first innings hero Krishnamurthy Siddharth (30 batting) and experienced Stuart Binny (2 batting) at the crease.
Karnataka bowlers, led by medium pacer Ronit More, rose to the occasion against the depleted Mumbai line-up without mainstays Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer, who are on national duty. More grabbed five for 52 to make regular inroads into Mumbai.
Apart from opener Jay Bista (70), other batsmen faltered as Mumbai conceded the lead.
Meanwhile, at Nagpur, Baroda trailed hosts and reigning champions Vidarbha by 241 runs after they finished Day Three at 288 for seven with Aditya Waghmode and Deepak Hooda slamming hundreds.
At Raipur, Railways managed to eke out a 30-run first innings lead against hosts Chhattisgarh.
At Nadiad (Gujarat), Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah led from the front as his side managed to take a 25-run first innings lead. Shah remained unbeaten on 81.
MILIND KUMAR MISSES WORLD RECORD
BHUBANESWAR: Milind Kumar continued his sublime form with the bat to smash 133, his third successive triple-figure score, but Sikkim still failed to save follow-on against Uttarakhand in their Plate Group match on Thursday.
Having struck 261 and 224 in the last two matches, the former Delhi batsman once again waged a lone battle for Sikkim. Milind had a great chance to become the first batsman in the history of first-class cricket to score three consecutive double tons but Dhanraj Sharma dismissed him 67 runs short of the world record.
KERALA BEAT BENGAL BY NINE WICKETS
KOLKATA: Kerala on Thursday blew away home favourites Bengal by nine wickets and with a day to spare for their second successive win, consolidating the position atop the Elite Group B standings.
Sandeep Warrier complemented opener Jalaj Saxena’s first innings 143 with an impressive 5/33 in the second essay, and the Kerala pacer rattled the top four Bengal batsmen, including a well-set skipper Manoj Tiwary (62), to set up the win.
Warrier was at his best during his second spell (7-2-10-2) in the post-lunch session, when he broke a 69-run third wicket stand between Tiwary and Sudeep Chatterjee (39).
He extracted reverse swing and cleaned up Tiwary with an incoming delivery before dismissing Chatterjee (39) in his next over. From thereon, it was just a matter of time as the last eight wickets managed to add just 69 runs to be bundled out for 184 in 56.5 overs.
Kerala knocked off the 41-run target in 11 overs.