Ranji Trophy Group A: Delhi, Karnataka get bonus points

Delhi spinners Manan Sharma and Vikas Mishra took an hour to grab the remaining four wickets as the Ishant Sharma-led team beat Railways by an innings and 105 runs in their second Group A league match of the Ranji Trophy.

New Delhi: Delhi spinners Manan Sharma and Vikas Mishra took an hour to grab the remaining four wickets as the Ishant Sharma-led team beat Railways by an innings and 105 runs in their second Group A league match of the Ranji Trophy.

With seven points including a bonus by virtue of innings victory, Delhi are now on top of Group A with 10 points from two games.

Starting the final day at 157 for six, Railways were all out for 206 in their second innings as Manan (3/67 in 17 overs) and Mishra (4/37 in 19.5 overs) were the wreckers-in- chief.

Railways had scored 110 runs in their first innings after Delhi's healthy total of 447.

Railways could add only 49 runs to their overnight score with the last three wickets falling in a jiffy with only a run added to the board.

Skipper Ishant Sharma cleaned up Avinash Yadav for 14 to make it 165 for 7 for the Railways.

With the defeat looking imminent, Anureet Singh (27, 32 balls) decided to hit out, adding 40 runs with the dogged Nitin Bhille (73, 204 balls).

Anureet hit four boundaries and a six in his short innings.

He was bowled trying to hit Mishra out and on the same score Bhille was out edging one off Manan to Anuj Rawat behind the stumps.

Mishra then capped off a fine comeback with last wicket which meant that he finished with seven wickets in the match.

Manan was deservingly the 'Man of the Match' for his century and match-haul of 7 wickets.

Brief Scores

Delhi 1st Innings 447 Railways 110 and 206 in 78.5 overs (Nitin Bhille 73, Vikas Mishra 4/37, Manan Sharma 3/67, Ishant Sharma 1/34) Delhi won by an innings & 105 runs. Points: Delhi 7; Railways 0.

Gowtham's all-round show Karnataka's innings victory

Karnataka began their 2017 Ranji Trophy campaign with a bang without their big guns like Manish Pandey and K L Rahul, defeating Assam by an innings and 121 runs in the Group A match at Mysuru.

With this win, Karnataka are placed second in the points table with seven points, next to Delhi who have 10 from two matches.

Sent into bat, Assam were skittled out for 145 in their first innings. In reply, Karnataka declared their first innings at 469 for seven, riding high on centuries by Ravikumar Samarth and Krishnappa Gowtham.

Assam did not have answers to the bowling attack of the hosts led by Gowtham and Shreyas Gopal in the first innings and Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun and Gowtham in the second.

The Assam innings folded for 203, giving Karnataka their first win of their season's opener.

Gowtham hogged the limelight both with bat and ball. He cracked a match-winning 149 in the first innings and then bagged seven wickets with four of them coming in the first innings.

Skipper Vinay Kumar, eyeing a comeback into the Indian squad, scalped six wickets, four of them in the second innings.

Karnataka were on the cusp of an outright win yesterday itself after restricting Assam to 169 for 6 as the third day's play was stopped due to poor light nearing close of play.

Requiring 155 runs to avoid an innings defeat, unbeaten Assam batsmen - skipper Gokul Sharma and Abu Nechim – resumed their second innings on the fourth and final day's play.

Assam lost the remaining four wickets after adding just 34 runs to their overnight score.

Sharma, who made his second fifty of the match, added another four runs to his overnight 62 not out, before he was cleaned up by Vinay Kumar for 66.

Nechim (17), Wasiur Rahman (3) fell to Mithun. Last man in Rahul (4) fell to Vinay.

Arup Das remained unbeaten at 7.

Mithun bagged three wickets for 47 after going wicketless in the first innings.

Karnataka will play their second match against Hyderabad at Shivamogga from October 24 to October 27.

Brief Scores

Assam 145 and 203 in 73.1 overs (Gokul Sharma 71, R Vinay Kumar 4/31, Krishnappa Gowtham 3/39)

Karnataka 469/7 dec. Karnataka won by an innings and 121 runs.

Points: Kanrataka 7; Assam 0.