Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 18 (IANS) Delhi entered the quarterfinals of the Ranji Trophy Super League as their last Group B tie against Bengal ended in a draw on the fourth and final day at the Jadavpur University Campus in Kolkata Friday.
Delhi’s first innings, in reply to Bengal’s 522, halted at 378 with wicketkeeper Puneet Bisht unbeaten on 128.

Bengal batsmen then had a field day on a placid track. The openers added 187 runs, with Arindam Das smashing 102 before getting retired hurt and Rohan Banerjee making out on 77. Bengal had made 223 for three when the match was called a draw.

Delhi, who were on 15 points from their five league matches in Group B, made the cut by one point. They were lucky that Baroda, who beat Maharshtra by seven wickets, failed to get the win with bonus point. Needing 101 to win, Baroda needed to chase the total without losing a wicket for a bonus point. But they lost three wickets with Maharashtra leg-spinner Digambhar Waghmare picking up two in an over.

Delhi joins group toppers Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh in the quarterfinals. Delhi now play Group A toppers Tamil Nadu at home from Dec 24-27 for place in semi-finals.

Punjab and defending champions Mumbai are the other two teams from Group A to enter the quarterfinals. Plate finalists Assam and Haryana are the other two teams.

Brief scores:

At Delhi: Railways 276 and 230/4 (Sanjay Bangar 115 not out, H.D. Rawle 40; Love Ablish 1-26). Punjab 401. Result: Draw.

At Kolkata: Bengal 522 and 223/3 (Arindam Das 102 retd, Rohan Banerjee 77; Rajat Bhatia 1-69); Delhi 378 (Puneet Bisht 128 not out, Mithun Manhas 88; Iresh Saxena 5-72, Ranadeb Bose 3-81). Result: Draw.

At Dharamsala: Himachal Pardesh 125 and 486 (Vinit Indulkar 165, Kuldeep Diwan 83; Alok Chandra Sahoo 3-100, Dhiraj Singh 3-123, Debashish Mohanty 2-98). Orissa 316 and 183/8 (Halhadar Das 47; Ashok Thakur 6-38). Result: Draw.

At Hyderabad: Hyderabad 347 all out and 148/2 (Abhinav Kumar 103 not out; Srikkanth Anirudha 1-40); Tamil Nadu 785 (Abhinav Mukund 257, Subramaniam Badrinath 122, C. Ganapathy 126; Alfred Absolem 5-114). Result: Draw.

At Pune: Maharashtra 288 and 207; Baroda 395 and 101/3 (Kedar Devdhar 53 not out; Digambar Waghmare 2-24). Result: Baroda won by seven wickets.

At Mumbai: Mumbai 648/6 dec. and 180/2 (Sahil Kukreja 84, Sushant Marathe 81; Rikin Chauhan 1-19); Gujarat 502 (Parthiv Patel 149, Bhavik Thaker 122; Aavishkar Salvi 3-37, Dhawal Kulkarni 3-67). Result: Draw.

At Rajkot: Saurashtra 216 and 407 (Chirag Pathak 88, Cheteshwar Pujara 66, Pratik Mehera 77 not out; Udit Patel 3-96, S. Aravind 3-100). Karnataka 384 and 24/4 ( G. Satish 68 not out, Manish Pandey 68; Rakesh Dhurv 2-64. Result: Karnataka won by six wickets.