Ranji Trophy: Gujarat take 1st innings lead, Delhi all but out of knockout race

On the basis of their 42-run first innings lead, Gujarat grabbed three points from the contest to take their tally to 29 from seven outings. They now sit atop the cross pool (group A and B) standings.

With just one round to go before the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals, Gujarat moved to the top of the table while their opponents in the seventh round Delhi moved one step closer to elimination after settling for a draw.

Representative image. (Getty Images)

In Jaipur, Bengal eked out a two-wicket win chasing 320 to move to the fourth spot just behind Saurashtra and Andhra. The top four teams Gujarat – 29 points, Saurashtra-28 points, Andhra-27 points, Bengal-26 points are most likely to make the last eight.

The fight for the remaining fifth spot from the combined Elite A and B will intensify in the last round. Karnataka (25 points), Punjab (24) and Uttar Pradesh (20) are the contenders.

Delhi and defending champions Vidarbha had to win this round to give themselves a chance to advance. While Vidarbha were unlucky to lose the final two days to rain and bad weather against Kerala in Nagpur, Delhi may have to blame the lack of bowling resources as well as a sporting pitch for conceding the first innings lead to Gujarat and not able to pull off the much-needed win.

The two teams, theoretically, still have a chance if they win their last game with a bonus point and hope other results go their way but it looks too much to ask for. Delhi apparently wanted a green wicket at the Feroze Shah Kotla that would have supported their seam attack throughout but it turned out to be a flat wicket that aided the bowlers only in the morning session, that too with the new ball.

“It was a usual Delhi wicket, helping seamers on the first two days and easing out for batsmen on the last two days,” said Delhi coach KP Bhaskar about the surface prepared by the neutral curator Sunil Chauhan. “I think we managed to do well with our limited resources.”

On the fourth morning, Delhi went after the Gujarat bowling, adding 105 runs to their overnight score of 228/4 but in the process they didn’t give themselves enough time to bowl out the Gujarat batting that runs till No. 8.

Siddhant Sharma, a short-statured paceman who was making his debut, produced a beauty to have Priyank Panchal caught behind early and later a snorter to get rid of Samit Gohel.

But these were the only two successes Delhi got as Gujarat ended the final day on 128/2 in 35 overs after Delhi had declared on 333/8 set a target of 291. Himmat Singh scored an unbeaten 70 for his second half-century of the game. Axar Patel took four wickets for 91 runs.

Delhi pacers were guilty of not keeping the length full to induce edges but with the wicket doing nothing, they couldn’t be blamed for not trying that length for long as there was a risk of boundaries.

The hosts lacked a proper spinner especially on a surface that didn’t break at all.

Brief Scores: Delhi 293 and 333 for 8 declared (Himmat Singh 70). Gujarat 335 and 128/2 (Manprit Juneja 51 no). Points: Gujarat 3. Delhi 1

In Jaipur: Rajasthan 241 and 201. Bengal 123 and 320/8 (Koushik Ghosh 64, Abhimanyu Easwaran 62, Shahbaz Ahmed 55). Bengal won by 2 wkts. Points: Bengal 6. Rajasthan 0.

In Nagpur: Vidarbha 326. Kerala 191/3. Match drawn. Pts: Vidarbha 1. Kerala 1.

Mumbai out

Rajkot Mumbai were knocked out of the ongoing Ranji Trophy after drawing against Saurashtra on the fourth and final day of their elite Group B match here on Friday.

Mumbai, the most successful team in the history of Ranji Trophy with 41 titles, still have a game left against Madhya Pradesh, but their campaign is over as they have only 14 points and even an outright win won’t help them to make the knock-outs.

Brief Scores:

Mumbai 262 and 362/7 declared (Suryakumar Yadav 134) vs Saurashtra 335 and158/7. Match Drawn. Saurashtra took first-innings lead. Saurashtra 3 points, Mumbai 1 point.