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By Venkat

The third round of matches in the Elite Stage got underway on Thursday, the 25th of November. Here is a review of the matches that took place on 25th November to 28th November at various venues across the country.

One certainly felt that it was about time the Ranji Champions came into their own and to top form. So, after conceding rather two unnecessary points to Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai took on a less-fancied Andhra side at the Wankhede Stadium. Mumbai fielded their strongest possible side, but one of their main batsmen, Vinod Kambli pulled out of the match due to sickness. Skipper Sairaj Bahutule won the toss and chose to bat on a flat and belter of a wicket and getting huge runs in the first innings was what Mumbai were looking for. After a disappointing start losing opener Vinayak Mane early, Wasim Jaffer and promising batsman Vinit Indulkar added some runs before Jaffer departed for 16. But, that didn't bother Indulkar as he marched his way to his maiden century. Giving him good company was Amol Muzumdar, who also chipped in with a brilliant 111. Last minute replacement Nishit Shetty also made a useful 80 and Ajit Agarkar and Vinayak Samant dashed their way to half-centuries before Mumbai declared at 516/9. For the visitors, D Kalyanakrishna was the pick of the bowlers with a brilliant haul of 6/56. The Andhra batsmen proved to be no match to some quality bowling of the Mumbai opening bowlers Ajit Agarkar and Santosh Shinde. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals and this restricted their score to an appalling tally of 116. Following on, they repeated the mistakes made in the first innings, and apart from veteran opener Amit Pathak and Y Gnaneshwara Rao, who made half-centuries, the Andhra batsmen gave no resistance to the Mumbai bowlers and were bowled out for 278 in the second essay. For Mumbai, the wrecker-in-chief was Nilesh Kulkarni, who bowled a great spell and picked 7 wickets for 60 runs. The win by an innings and 121 runs, gave the Ranji Champions their first outright win of the season and Andhra will certainly have to do some work if they have any hopes of challenging the best in the season. Full Scorecard

After a confident display against Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium, the boys from Madhya Pradesh travelled southwards to Bangalore to take on Karnataka in their third round match. After winning the toss, MP skipper Amay Khurasiya sent the opposition in, and little did he know what a mistake he had made. India U-19 opener Robin Uthappa and future prospect Barrington Rowland made little effort of the weak Madhya Pradesh bowling and made them suffer all day. Uthappa reached his highest first class score of 163 while Barrington seemed flawless and classy as he made a near triple-century, but unfortunately got out for 283. To add to the already existing woes of the MP bowlers, Karnataka skipper Sujith Somasundar cashed in on the chance and added the centurion's bandwagon as he made 104 runs. Karnataka were in a position where they could dictate terms to the opposition as they declared at 619/5. Madhya Pradesh started their first innings with a clear mindset to wipe off the follow on deficit, but with 619 at the back of their mind, it was always going to be a tough task. But cashing on their optimism from the Mumbai match, opener Sachin Dholpure played exceptionally to score a well-made 107. Apart from his century, the other notable contributions came from the bats of veteran Syed Abbas Ali and Nikhil Patwardhan, who made 62 and 89 respectively. For Karnataka, the wickets were equally shared between NC Aiyappa (3), Sunil Joshi (2), Chandrashekhar Raghu (2) and one each to Vinay Kumar and Stuart Binny. Madhya Pradesh were asked to follow on by the home team and yet again Sachin Dholpure impressed with the bat with a fine half-century as MP drew the match after making 152/6 in their second innings. Karnataka open their account in the season with 2 first innings points, while MP have to get back to the basics, if they have to compete in the rest of the matches. Full Scorecard

After escaping with a draw against last year's runner ups Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh had to get going against Assam, who have been virtually non-contenders this season. UP skipper Jyoti P Yadav won the toss and elected to field on a good pitch for bowlers and the Assam batsmen were always up against it with regards to the conditions. The Assam batsmen did not look comfortable at all against some good spells of fast bowling by the UP seamers and apart from opener P Aziz who scored 58, the other batsmen yielded hardly anything. For UP though, India U-19 paceman Rudra Pratap Singh captured his second consecutive fiver as the UP bowlers bowled Assam out for a paltry 184. But the UP batsmen did not look any different from their opponents as they could not keep up with the quality in the Assam bowling, and were bowled out for a low 132. For Assam, opening bowler RK Yadav was the pick with a haul of 6/57. In the second innings, the Assam batsmen did not learn from the mistakes made by both them and UP in the first innings. They failed to capitalize on the first innings lead they gained and after being bowled out for 107 in their second innings, it was virtually game over for them. The UP batsmen set out to chase a meager total of 163 to win and achieved it with relative ease thanks to a good 61 by skipper JP Yadav and an unbeaten and match-winning 89 by Suresh Raina. This win guarantees UP with 4 valuable points, but Assam need to work out a way to get going in the Ranji Trophy this season. Full Scorecard

The opener for Hyderabad seemed to be a forgettable one, as they were overwhelmed by Tamil Nadu at Chennai. But, would fortune seem to have something better in store for them as they took on Maharashtra?? Lets find out. After winning the toss, Maharashtra skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar had no hesitation in opting to field first. And his bowlers seemed to respond well to his call of the coin as they reduced the home team to 49/4. But a good partnership between Anirudh Singh and opener Shashank Nag put the house back on order temporarily for Hyderabad till Nag was out for 60. But Anirudh Singh hung around and fought his way to a fine century and also took Hyderabad to a respectable score of 231. Anupam Sanklecha and Ranjit Khirid were the successful bowlers for Maharashtra with 4 wickets each. In response to Hyderabad's 231, Maharashtra's reply seemed rather disastrous. Their batsmen were all at sea against some quality Hyderabadi bowling, as they hardly moved towards a decent score. Maharashtra were bundled out for a 83 thanks to some good bowling by veteran NP Singh and Mohammad Ghouse Baba. After gaining a respectable first inning lead, Hyderabad consolidated their match position by adding some quick runs and ended up with a score of 170. Anupam Sanklecha bowled well yet again to bag a fiver but Maharashtra were always against it as they had to chase 319 runs in the second innings. The Maharashtra batsmen were yet again no match for some good Hyderabad bowling and apart from future Indian prospect Dheeraj Jadhav, who carried his bat through with an effort of 124 not out, the others hardly made a contribution worth mention. NP Singh yet again emerged the pick of the bowlers for Hyderabad as he grabbed 6 wickets and a total of 10 for the match and bowled Hyderabad to a morale boosting 85 run win. Like Mumbai and UP, Hyderabad also open their winning account, while Maharashtra have to think hard for their future challenges. Full Scorecard

After a reasonable start to their respective campaigns, both Railways and Delhi locked horns against each other at the Sardar Karnail Singh Stadium at Delhi for a Round 3 match. Delhi skipper Ajay Jadeja won the toss and elected to bat on a flat wicket. Delhi's top order were wiped away by a fine spell of fast bowling by former India paceman Harvinder Singh and with the score at 86 for 6, Delhi certainly looked in dire straits. But thanks to some good and important contributions by skipper Jadeja and Sarandeep Singh, they managed to scrape their way to 216. For Railways, Harvinder Singh grabbed 3, while JP Yadav and Kulamani Parida picked 2 each. Railways began their first innings in a not-so-good fashion, losing skipper Bangar for a duck. But opener Amit Pagnis and TP Singh steadied the ship for a while before Singh departed. After Singh's departure, it was a virtual collapse for the Railmen, as the only other notable contribution came from S Verma, who made 44, as Railways were folded up for 201. With the match pointing towards a draw, the Delhi batsmen chose to gain some valuable batting practice as promising India U-19 opener made a fine 87 along with all rounder Rajat Bhatia, who played a superb knock of an unbeaten 157, to take Delhi to 395/4 and earn two valuable points for them. Delhi have done well to take 2 points out of this nothing game, but Railways have their task cut out if they have any hopes of making it to the last four. Full Scorecard
 

It was to be an interesting clash between two top teams in the Domestic Circuit - Punjab and Baroda at Mohali. Punjab have been the side that have been grabbing all the headlines this season becase of their high-profile foreign coach Inthikhab Alam. But were his strategies good enough to take Punjab through?? Time to find that out. After Baroda skipper Jacob Martin won the toss, he chose to send the opposition in. His bowlers did extremely well in their effort to restrict Punjab to a paltry 175, with good bowling performances from Shekhar Joshi, and Irfan Pathan Sr. But, the new look Punjab team have proven to be a top class team and for the same reason, they did manage to claw their way back into reckoning by bowling Baroda out for a score of 155, thanks to yet another fiver from paceman Gagandeep Singh, with good support from Vineet Sharma who picked 4 wickets. After their batting let them down in the first essay, it was time for the Punjab batsmen to stand up and be counted. The captain, Dinesh Mongia led the way for them with a fine 108 along with extremely good contributions from former Indian batsman Pankaj Dharmani and Ankur Kakkar, who both made unbeaten 92 and 90 respectively as Punjab declared their second innings at 370/4. With a mammoth target of 390 runs at the back of their mind, the Baroda batsmen succumbed to some intensive pressure by the Punjab bowlers and it was surprisingly Ravneet Ricky who did the damage for Baroda by picking an unexpected yet match-winning 4 wicket hall. Baroda only managed 280 runs with the only notable contribution coming from tailender Rakesh Patel. The Punjab side are on a roll now with two consecutive wins, and it was about time that they emerged as a side that could challenge for the title, but Baroda, unfortunately couldnt capitalize on some good performances and hence this 110 run loss to Punjab will surely have some impact on their morale for future matches. Full Scorecard

After settling for a draw against Railways at Delhi, Bengal took on the upcoming Gujarat in the Round 3 of the Ranji Trophy at Siliguri. Skipper Rohan Gavaskar won the toss and chose to bat on an unknown wicket at Siliguri, since no matches had been played there before. It all started in a not-so well fashion for Bengal as they lost their openers early. But, not bothered by the poor start, skipper Rohan Gavaskar played a captain's knock of 80 along with some useful runs from Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Sanyal, as Bengal reached a not-so-convincing 298. For Gujarat, the bulk of the wickets came from Damani, who ended with 4-9 off 8 overs. Gujarat were set for a prompt reply, with extremely good knocks from openers Aakash Christian and Mukund Parmar, who made 87 and 68 respectively. Apart from them, left hander Neeraj Patel chipped in with a crucial 87 as Gujarat took a vital first innings lead after scoring 361. For Bengal, the successful bowler this time around was also Ranadeb Bose, whose impressive run with the ball fetched him a 6 wicket haul. By conceding such a huge lead to Gujarat in the first innings, it was imperative that Bengal play really well in the 2nd innings, and yet again for them, their skipper came to the rescue with a brilliant unbeaten 111, which guided them to 279, setting Gujarat a target of 217 runs. Gujarat's run chase started off well, with a crucial 67 from opener Christian. After a mini collapse, it was left to Niraj Patel and the tailenders to get the match in favor of Gujarat, and so it happened. An almost run-a-ball knock by the left hander sealed the match in favour of the Gujarat, and like many teams, they also got their first win of the season. Full Scorecard
 

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