Ranji Trophy Group B: Kerala thrash Bengal by 9 wickets; Delhi fall behind Hyderabad

Ranji Trophy Group B round-up: Sandeep Warrier and Jalaj Saxena combined to take Kerala to an outright win over Bengal.

Kerala vs Bengal at Kolkata

Kerala blew away home favourites Bengal by nine wickets and with a day to spare for their second successive win in the Ranji Trophy, 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 to hand Bengal their first loss at the Eden Gardens since December 2014, when they succumbed to Karnataka by an identical margin.

Kerala had a golden chance to complete the win by 10 wickets, which would have given the visitors a bonus point, but Bengal denied that with pacer Mukesh Kumar cleaning up first innings hero and Man of the Match Saxena for 26.

Kerala settled for six points to lead the table with 13, while Bengal remained on six points.

Australia-bound India pacer Mohammed Shami's inclusion on a green top had bolstered Bengal but their batsmen failed to apply themselves and went on the backfoot after Kerala put them in after winning a good toss.

With this defeat, Bengal's hope for a qualifying suffered a big blow as tougher challenges lie ahead with three back-to-back away matches beginning with Tamil Nadu from November 28 to December 1.

 

Tamil Nadu vs Andhra Pradesh at Ongole

Rain played spoilsport washing out proceedings on the third day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'B' match between Tamil Nadu and Andhra at Ongole Thursday.

Play was called off at 3 p.m owing to a steady drizzle.

Tamil Nadu had reached 122 for 3 in 50 overs at stumps on day two in reply to Andhra's first innings score of 216.

Only 140 runs were scored from around 60 overs of play yesterday before bad light intervened.

With an entire day's play being lost, chances of Tamil Nadu forcing an outright win look bleak. The visiting team will be aiming to obtain the first innings lead and three points.

Tamil Nadu has two points from two games as the first innings was not completed in both.

Brief scores (End of Day 3): Andhra 216 all out in 89.5 overs (Girinath Reddy 86 not out, Jyothisaikrishna 58, M Mohammed 4 for 70, T Natarajan 3 for 36, Sai Kishore 3 for 29) vs Tamil Nadu 122 for 3 in 50 overs (M Kaushik Gandhi 38).

 

Punjab vs Madhya Pradesh at Indore

Punjab 293 all out in 84.4 overs (Jiwanjot Singh 124, Gurkeerat Mann 66, Kuldeep Sen 5 for 62, Avesh Khan 4 for 77) and 127 for 1 in 30 overs (Abhishek Sharma 78, Jiwanjot Singh 39 not out) vs Madhya Pradesh 315 all out in 124.2 overs (Rajat Patidar 73, Naman Ojha 51, Yash Dubey 65 not out, Mayank Markande 4 for 70).

 

Delhi vs Hyderabad at Hyderabad

Hyderabad 460 all out in 170.3 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 120, T Ravi Teja 115 not out, Himalay Agarwal 66, C V Milind 58, Gourav Kumar 3 for 50) vs Delhi 245 for 6 in 97 overs (Hiten Dalal 93, Nitish Rana 82, Tanay Thyagarajan 3 for 41).