Ranji Trophy: Bengal, Karnataka, Vidarbha Also Win Big
Mumbai and Saurashtra were not the only teams to dominate on the final day of the latest Ranji Trophy round. Bengal, Karnataka, and Vidarbha also secured big victories, while a number of matches ended in draws.
Tanush Kotian and Parth Bhut both finished with eight-wicket returns. Kotian's 8/81 helped Mumbai beat Haryana by 10 wickets at the BKC Ground, where Angkrish Raghuvanshi finished unbeaten on 67 off 39 balls after Mumbai needed just 97. Bhut's 8/17 from 18 overs, which earned him Player of the Match honours, along with Ravindra Jadeja's 2/58, gave Saurashtra an innings and 12-run win over Assam at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot.
In Thiruvananthapuram, Bengal defeated Kerala by 287 runs. Pradipta Pramanik returned 6/51, taking all four Kerala wickets on the third day and two more the following morning to dismiss the hosts for 120.
At Mysuru, Karnataka beat Tripura by an innings and 116 runs. Captain Shreyas Gopal took 5/36, and the visitors were bowled out for 180 in their second innings.
In Nagpur, Vidarbha defeated Goa by an innings and 27 runs. Harsh Dubey took 4/38, dismissing Manthan Khutkar, who top-scored with 70, and Yash Kasvankar. He then struck with consecutive deliveries to finish the innings, with Goa all out for 195.
Draws were recorded in several other fixtures. In Vadodara, defending champions Jammu and Kashmir and Baroda shared the points after a drawn contest. In Pune, Gujarat declared their second innings at 446/5 against Maharashtra, led by Aarya Desai's 151, with Jaymeet Patel unbeaten on 119 and Urvil Patel scoring 96. The home side held out for a draw.
In Secunderabad, Punjab and Hyderabad were level at tea on the final day. Half-centuries from Vihaan Malhotra, Prabhsimran Singh (68 off 76 balls) and visiting captain Uday Saharan (unbeaten 55 off 106 balls) marked the match.
Akash Vashisht's unbeaten 126 helped Himachal Pradesh reply with 559/6 against Chandigarh's declared total of 685/5, producing a high-scoring draw. In another fixture, Puducherry took a first-innings lead despite Karthik Yadav's 6/42 for Uttar Pradesh, and the match ended in a draw.