A round-up of the third day's play of the Ranji Trophy Super League matches on Sunday.
Mumbai thrash Orissa
Mumbai thrashed Orissa by 315 runs at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack to assure themselves a place in the last eight.
Chasing an improbable 434 to win, the home team could only muster 118.
Opener P Jayachandra was the only Orissa batsman to put up a semblance of resistance with a polished 72.
Regular openers BS Pati and captain Shiv Sunder Das didn't take the field owing to injuries.
For Mumbai, Rahil Sheikh took three for 30.
Earlier, resuming at their overnight score of 133 for one, Mumbai reached 361 for five before making a declaration.
The in-form Ajinkya Rahane made a superlative 201 while captain Wasim Jaffer chipped in with 66.
Brief Scores: Mumbai 180 and 361 for five (Ajinkya Rahane 201, Wasim Jaffer 66, Sahil Kukreja 53) vs Orissa 108 and 118 (P Jayachandra 72).
Saurashtra struggling to avoid defeat against Delhi
After having healthy 143 runs first inning lead over hosts Saurashtra, defending champions Delhi kept their hopes alive to enter in knock out stage by reducing Saurashtra at 46 for two on the penultimate day of their four day Elite Division match in Rajkot.
The hosts are still trailing by 97 runs and will have to play entire final day with most dependable batsmen, Sitanshu Kotak and Cheteshwar Pujara. The duo were at the crease on 14 and 7 runs respectively at the end of third days play.
Saurashtra, who conceded 143 runs first inning lead to the visitors, had a poor start losing opener Chirag Pathak (2) in the third over of their innings.
Bhushan Chauhan played some good shots during his 112-minutes stay during which he made 22. Sumit Narwal bagged both the wickets giving away just 19 runs in his 9 overs.
Earlier, resuming their overnight 215 for 2, Delhi hopes to take huge first inning lead shattered when they lost both overnight batsmen Shikhar Dhawan and Mithun Manhas in the morning session.
Dhawan was unlucky to complete his well deserved hundred by just seven runs and was taken behind the wicket of Jobanputra while Manhas also sent in similar feshion by Balkishna Jadeja.
Dhawan spent 412 minutes at the crease faced 265 alls and hit seven fours.
While Manhas contribution of 32 runs came off 60 balls contained six fours. Departure of the two over night batsmen at team's total 255 it looked difficult for Delhi to take huge lead but they could manage healthy 143 runs leads duo to some useful contribution from Rajat Bhatia (36), Chaitenya Nanda (47) and Pradeep Sangwan (35).
Brief scores: Saurashtra 241 and 46 for two vs Delhi 384 (Aakash Chopra 58, Shikar Dhawan 93, Virat Kohli 69).
Railways set Maharashtra 303 target
Set to score 303 to win their Group B tie against Railways, Maharashtra made 34 without losing a wicket at close on the third day in Ratnagiri.
Railways declared their second innings at 334 for six after resuming at their overnight 48 for no loss to leave the home team bat for eight overs before stumps.
The visitors lost openers Sanjay Bangar and V Cheluvaraj soon after resumption of play this morning as well as the wicket of Harshad Rawle for a duck to totter at 59 for three.
Yere Gaud (89) and Sanjib Sanyal (82) steadied the innings with a stand of 141 runs for the fourth wicket.
After the fall of Sanyal, who batted for three hours, Gaud, who occupied the crease for nearly five hours and hit nine fours, put on a rollicking 97-run stand with Murali Kartik, who made a breezy 49-ball 56.
The fifth wicket stand between Gaud and Kartik enabled Railways to apply the declaration before stumps, but their aim to get an early wicket or two of Maharashtra did not bear fruit as openers Harshad Khadiwale (20) and Rohan Bhosale (9) remained unbeaten.
Brief scores: Railways 212 and 334 for six declared (Yere Goud 89, Sanjib Sanyal 82, Murali Kartik 56) vs Maharashtra 244 and 34 for no loss.
Kaul's century guides Punjab to 291
Middle-order batsman Uday Kaul scored a magnificent hundred to help Punjab score 291 against Hyderabad on the penultimate day of their Group A match played at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.
At stumps, Hyderabad lost two quick wickets and scored 68 runs in their second innings with S Anoop Pai (31) and Anmol Shinde (16) still at the crease.
Earlier, resuming on their second day total of 150 for six, Punjab went on to add another 141 runs, chasing the home team's first innings score of 335.
Kaul, who led from the front with his impressive knock, scored 106 before falling to Shiv Shanker, who claimed three wickets.
He got good support from M Sidana who scored a crucial 41. The duo, who got together with Punjab tottering at 150-6, added 91 runs for the seventh wicket.
After the duo's dismissal, the visitor's innings folded quickly with tail enders Manpreet Gony and Sarabjit Singh sent back for noughts. Amanpreet remained unbeaten on 15.
For Hyderabad M P Arjun and Ashwin Yadav claimed three wickets each while Ahmed Quadri took one wicket.
With a lead of 44 runs, Hyderabad got off to a dismal start in their second innings losing openers T Suman(16) and D B Ravi Teja (4) cheaply.
Brief scores: Hyderabad 335 and 68 for two vs Punjab 291 (Uday Kaul 106, Karan Goel 44, M Sidana 41).
Balaji-Ganpathy script Tamil Nadu's 269-run victory
Laxmipathy Balaji scalped five for 47 and G Ganpathy took four for 24 to help Tamil Nadu beat Baroda by a huge margin of 269 runs in their Group B match in Vadodara.
Tamil Nadu had set a victory target of 354 runs for Baroda but the hosts were done in by the lethal combo of Balaji and Ganpathy, who just ripped them apart and wrapped up their innings for a meagre 94 in just two hours and four minutes.
Wickets kept tumbling right from the start, with Shatrunjay Gaekwad, son of former Test player Anshuman Gaekwad, being the only player to provide some resistance. He was not out with an individual score of 37 runs.
Earlier resuming at 301 for three, Tamil Nadu amassed 402 runs in their second essay, losing remaining seven wickets for addition of 101 runs.
Medium pacer Ajitesh Argal took four wickets giving 59 runs while spinner Swapnail Singh grabbed two wickets for 60 runs.
Tamil Nadu has secured five points out of this match to take its tally to 19 on the league table, while Baroda has secured nine points from five matches it played so far.
Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 117 and 402 (Dinesh Karthik 123, R Prasanna 92, Ajitesh Argal 4 for 59) beat Baroda 166 and 94 (Shatrunjay Gaekwad 37 not out, Laxmipathy Balaji 5 for 47, G Ganpathy 4 for 24).
Srivastava, Kaif lead UP fightback against Karnataka
Uttar Pradesh replied strongly to Karnataka's mammoth total with Tanmay Srivastava and skipper Mohammad Kaif hitting unbeaten centuries to guide the visitors to 295 for two at the end of third and penultimate day's play of their Group 'B' match in Bangalore.
At stumps, Srivastava remained unbeaten on 154, while Kaif was batting on 103. The duo have so far put on 242 runs for the third wicket at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
For Karanataka, N C Aiyappa picked up two wickets, giving away 62 runs.
Brief scores: Karnataka 511 vs Uttar Pradesh 295 for 2 (Tanmay Srivastava batting 154, Mohammad Kaif batting 103, NC Aiyappa 2 for 62).
Gujarat humiliate Rajasthan
A fine bowling spell by lanky medium pacer Amit Singh (7 for 31) helped Gujarat humiliate Rajasthan by seven wickets at KL Saini stadium at Mansarovar.
The visitors shot out Rajasthan for 186 before notching up the victory target of 95 runs in just 34.3 overs to complete a comprehensive victory in less than three days.
Gujarat bagged five points from this win to take their tally to 23 and are now assured of a quarterfinal berth. On the other hand, Rajasthan were relegated from the elite group with just two points from six matches.
Brief scores: Rajasthan 136 and 186 (Vinod Chanwaria 88, Amit Singh seven for 31) lost to Gujarat 227 and 99 for three (Priyank Panchal 44).
