A round-up of the third day’s play in the third round of Ranji Trophy Plate Group matches
Cricinfo staff11-Dec-2006
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Abu Nechim, Anand Katti, and Sathiamoorty Saravanan bowled Assam to an innings and one run victory over Kerala on the third day at Palakkad and put themselves at the top of the Plate Group points table. Saravanan, who didn’t bowl in the first innings, removed two top-order batsmen before he finished off the tail, while Nechim and Katti ran through the middle order. Only Preambhastn Prem, with a 159-ball 67, and M Vipin Lal (45 from 148 balls) offered any resistance as Kerala folded for 203 and saved Assam’s batsman the time to pad up again.
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Despite career-best efforts from Sagun Kamat and Robin D’Souza, Goa finished the third day’s play 145 runs adrift of making Railways bat again at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi. Kamat, the 23-year-old opener, resumed the day on 54 and progressed to his maiden first-class hundred, a dogged 130 from 318 balls, with 16 fours. A middle-order collapse at the hands of Harvinder Singh and Murali Kartik threatened chaos, but in D’Souza, Kamat found a reliable partner and the two added a vital 132 for the seventh wicket. D’Souza’s dismissal for 79, with the score at 360 for 8, triggered another collapse and no further runs were added to Goa’s total. Following-on, the tourists lost two wickets to Jai Prakash Yadav, the former Indian allrounder, and Kamat, unbeaten on 14 from 57 balls, may have to bat out of his skin for the second time in two days.
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Sandeep Singh, Vidharbha’s opening bowler, led a competent bowling display to dismiss Madhya Pradesh for 221 and leave his side 151 to win at Nagpur. Along with his new-ball partner, Chandrashekhar Atram, Singh rocked MP’s top order to leave them at 57 for 4. Syed Abbas Ali, MP’s captain, defied the odds with a 137-ball 85, but no other batsman really came good. Faiz Fazal and Amit Deshpande, Vidarbha’s openers, played out 13 overs to finish the day on 39 for no loss.
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Orissa’s batsmen had a field day against Jharkhand, adding 305 runs to take a sizeable lead on the third day’s play at Cuttack. Debasis Mohanty, who picked up four wickets on day two, batted just shy of three-and-a-half hours for his 67, while Pinninti Jayachandra (86 not-out) and Rashmi Das (a career-best 82) put on 157 for the seventh wicket to take Orissa past 400. Subit Biswal, overnight on 22, chipped in with 59. Sanjay Satpathy, the offspinner, shared the new ball with Mohanty and picked up the wicket of Manish Vardhan in his first over as Orissa made an inroad into Jharkhand’s line-up.
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Soomik Chatarjee and Jasvir Singh backed the good work done by the bowlers with an unbeaten 148-run second-wicket stand to help Services take a 64-run lead over Jammu and Kashmir at New Delhi’s Palam Stadium. Chatarjee was 11 runs shy of a maiden first-class hundred, and Jasvir was on 70. J&K resumed the third day on 231 for 5, but could only add a further 98, thanks primarily to a career-best 52 from Samiullah Beigh at the No. 10 spot. Arun Sharma finished with 4 for 93, and was backed up by Manish Jha’s 2 for 68.
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After only 15 overs were bowled yesterday, conditions improved only slightly on the third day at Dharamshala with just 33 overs completed on another fog-hit occasion. Resistance from the lower order helped Himachal Pradesh extend their overnight score to 341, and the bowlers then reduced Tripura to 60 for 3 before play was called off.