Kolkata: Young Mayank Agarwal scored his maiden triple ton today in just 490 deliveries to take help Karnataka to reach a mammoth of a total of 628/5 before declaring the innings against Maharashtra in a Ranji Trophy encounter. Mayank’s century helped Karnataka to take a huge lead of 383 runs at the MCA Cricket Stadium today. This is the third triple century of the ongoing Ranji Trophy season and the 43rd in all time Ranji Trophy record book. He is only the third batsman from Karnataka who has crossed the mark of 300 in a Ranji Trophy game. KL Rahul and Karun Nair did the same ahead of him.
Karnataka didn’t take time to declare after Agarwal’s triple ton. The eight-time champions declared on 628/5 which gave them a lead of 383 in the first innings. Earlier, Maharashtra were all-out on mere 245 in the first innings. At the end of day’s play Maharashtra is tottering at 135/4 at the end of Day 3.
In Kolkata the visitors, Himachal Pradesh made a brilliant comeback against Bengal after skipper Manoj Tiwary chose to enforce follow-on against Himachal. Bengal’s pace spearhead Ashok Dinda scalped a five-for in the first innings beside Mohammed Shami to bowled Himachal on mere 206 in the first innings in a Group D clash at the Eden Gardens. Dinda finished his spell on 5/61 and Shami complemented him well with 3/94.
Bengal, however, could not capitalise on their big 213- run first innings lead on an innocuous Eden wicket as Himachal ended the penultimate day at 207 for 2 when bad light stopped play in 58 overs.
Himachal openers Prashant Chopra (81; 8x4s) and Priyanshu Khanduri (67 batting; 7x4s, 1×6) put on a solid 125-run stand before Mukesh Kumar finally gave the breakthrough before the tea break.
Pressed into action, Shami dismissed skipper Sumeet Verma for a duck with an addition of four runs but before they could make further inroads, Khanduri and Nikhil Gangta (43 batting; 6x4s) showed fine application to end day three without further damage.
The day began with some hostile bowling from the Bengal pace duo.
With pace and swing, Shami moved the ball from good length, while Dinda generated awkward bounce off the track in a fine seam bowling display in the morning session.
It was Dinda, who gave the first breakthrough of the day when Ankush Bains (5) edged one to Abhimanyu Easwaran at the second slip.
Having troubled the batsmen with his pace and swing, Shami finally got his due sending Rishi Dhawan’s offstump cartwheeling after the Himachal batsman dragged the ball in.
Dinda then scalped the wickets of Pankaj Jaiswal and Gurvinder Singh to register his 24th first-class five-wicket haul, while Mukesh Kumar wrapped it up after trapping Amit Kumar.
Bengal don’t have much chances to take full six points from this game, but Dinda still looked pretty confident.” We still have chances to get full six points, all the players will give their hundred percent tomorrow. You all saw that the pitch has become easy to bat on today. We played well in the first innings but in the second innings they batted well too.”
On being asked whether Bengal didn’t get much home advantage in this match, as they have the best pace bowlers in India right now, Dinda replied,” The management take the final call on wicket. We are cricketers and we always keep us ready for every situation. On a pitch full of grass many times a team score more than 400, on the other hand on a flat track on team can be bundled out on 150 or so.”
Bengal coach Sairaj Bahutule too is hopeful for a win tomorrow,” Abhishek Raman and Manoj batted brilliantly in the first innings, our bowlers too bowled well on this track. The first hour of tomorrow’s game will be very crucial. We are still in better position.”
In another match between Delhi and UP Ranji Trophy game was halted because a car drove into the middle of the pitch. Though nothing serious had happened.
Brief Scores:
In Kolkata: Bengal 419 vs Himachal Pradesh 206 in 56.2 overs (Sumeet Verma 64, Priyanshu Khanduri 52; Ashoke Dinda 5/61, Mohammed Shami 3/94) and f/o 207 for 2 (Prashant Chopra 81, Priyanshu Khanduri 67 batting, Nikhil Gangta 43 batting).
In Nagpur: Vidarbha 385 & 111 for 2 in 28 overs (Faiz Fazal 46) vs Services 317 in 113 overs (Nakul Verma 71, Rahul Singh 63, Ravi Chauhan 44; Akshay Wakhare 5/87).
In Raipur: Chhatisgarh 238 & 171 for 4 in 64 overs (Ashutosh Singh 81 batting) vs Punjab 653 for 9 declared in 128.1 overs (Anmolpreet Singh 267, Gurkeerat Singh 111, Jiwanjot Singh 75; Shourabh Kharwar 3/107, Prateek Sinha 3/121).