By IANS,
New Delhi : Saurashtra beat Railways while defending champions Rajasthan thrashed Orissa in the Ranji Trophy Elite Division matches Friday.
Saurashtra defeated Railways by 97 runs at the Karnail Singh Stadium here for their second win of the season.
The hosts, chasing 247, were bowled out for 149 courtesy a five-wicket haul from off-spinner Maklesh Makvana and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja picking up four. Railways were only delaying the inevitable after being reduced to 97 for six by stumps on second day.
The match would have ended well before but for the effort of Ashish Yadav and Marripuri Suresh. Yadav scored 50 for the lone half century of the match while Suresh made 30 after Railways were tottering at 52 for six at one stage.
Saurashtra are fourth in Group A with 16 points from seven games while Railways are seventh on 13 points and have played the same number of matches.
Rajasthan crushed Orissa by an innings and 56 runs at their home ground Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
Orissa were staring at defeat after ending the second day at 76 for 6 while chasing Rajasthan’s 423. The visitors’ were folded up for 134 in their first innings Friday morning and could come up with 233 while following on.
Medium pacer Sumit Mathur took a wicket-haul for Rajasthan in the first innings with Rituraj Singh doing the damage in the second, bagging six for 75 runs.
Rajasthan are third in Group A with 16 points from seven matches while Orissa are languishing at the bottom after four losses.
In Chennai, Tamil Nadu were poised to top the Group B as they grabbed a first innings lead of 197 runs against Madhya Pradesh.
With 17 points already in the kitty, Tamil Nadu, who made 486 in their first innings, dismissed Madhya Pradesh for 289 and were 30 for two when the stumps were drawn.
Madhya Pradesh, who are on 16 points, proved unequal to the task and but for a fighting 98 by opener Zafar Ali, would have folded up for much less.
The match seemed heading for another draw which will be Tamil Nadu?s fifth, besides a lone win, but both teams are assured of a berth in the quarter-finals.
Maharashtra look set to make the final of the Plate Division after taking a first innings lead against Himachal Pradesh at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune.
Maharashtra were 36 for no loss by stumps in their second innings and had made 415 earlier. Himachal Pradesh made 236 in reply to the home team’s formidable total.
In the other semifinal, Hyderabad were 216 for 3 in response to Vidharba’s 531.
Brief scores
Elite Division:
GROUP A:
At Shimoga: Karnataka 314 in 95 overs and 158/2 in 56 overs ( Ganesh Satish batting 70, Amit Verma batting 46), Uttar Pradesh 419 all out in 116.4 overs (Amir Khan not out 67, Mohammad Kaif 152; Neravanda Aiyappa 3-92, Sunil Raju 3-43).
At Mumbai: Punjab 226 in 77.2 overs and 203/4 in 60 overs (Uday Kaul batting 63, Mayank Sidhana 57; Kshemal Waingankar 2-55), Mumbai 430 all out in 124.3 overs (Wasim Jaffer 82, Ramesh Powar 81, Harmeet Singh 2-67, Rahul Sharma 3-129).
At New Delhi: Saurashtra 175 in 66.2 overs and 152 in 62.3 overs, Railways 81 in 24.5 overs and 149 all out in 51.1 overs (Marripuri Suresh 30, Ashish Yadav 50; Kamlesh Makvana 5-47, Ravindra Jadeja 4-42).
Match Result: Saurashtra won by 97 runs
At Jaipur: Rajasthan 423 in 155.4 overs, Orissa 134 all out in 42.5 overs (Govind Podder not out 52; Pankaj Singh 3-39, Sumit Mathur 5-30) and 233 all out in 63.5 overs (Biplab Samantray 82, Subhrajit Sahoo 55; Rituraj Singh 6-75, Pankaj Singh 2-49)
Match Result: Rajasthan won by an innings and 56 runs
GROUP B:
At Baroda: Baroda 284 in 88 overs and 103/5 in 34 overs (Rakesh Solanki batting 55; Ashok Dinda 3-43), Bengal 390 all out in 138.5 overs (Anustup Mazumdar 111, Lakshmi Ratan Shukla 99, Gagandeep Singh 6-94).
At Surat: Haryana 207 in 74.2 overs and 321/5 decl in 98 overs (Nitin Saini 91, Priyank Tehlan not out 85), Gujarat 228 in 78.3 overs and 34/1 in 12 overs (Jesal Karia batting 19)
At Chennai: Tamil Nadu 486 in 153.1 overs and 30/2 in 12 overs (Dinesh Karthik batting 19), Madhya Pradesh 289 all out in 101.2 overs(Zafar Ali 98, Jalaj Saxena 43; Jagannathan Kaushik 3-48, Lakshmipathy Balaji 2-40).
Plate Division (semi-finals):
At Nagpur: Vidarbha 531 all out in 191.1 overs (Shalabh Srivastava 83, Amol Jungade 115; Anwar Ahmed 2-86, Pagadala Naidu 2-98, Syed Quadri 3-97), Hyderabad 216/3 in 76 overs (Arjun Yadav batting 91, Bavanaka Sandeep batting 60; Sandeep Singh 1-40)
At Pune: Maharashtra 415 in 161.3 overs and 36/0 in 13 overs (Chirag Khurana batting 23), Himachal Pradesh 236 all out in 91.3 overs (Paras Dogra 81, Rishi Dhawan not out 52; Domnic Joseph 4-42, Samad Fallah 2-60)