The third round of the Ranji Trophy concluded on Thursday, October 30, with Abdul Samad‘s heroic 143 in the second innings helping defending champions Jammu & Kashmir hold Baroda to a draw. Across the groups, there were several outright results, including wins for Bengal, Mumbai and Tamil Nadu, and a number of draws that were decided on first-innings leads.
Group A
Abdul Samad played a heroic 143-run knock in the second innings to help defending champions Jammu & Kashmir earn a draw against Baroda. Puducherry also held Uttar Pradesh for a thrilling draw, finishing the day at 211-8 in their second innings.
The other two matches in the group produced outright results. Madhya Pradesh beat Bihar, and Vidarbha beat Goa.
Jammu & Kashmir 303 & 316-6 (Abdul Samad 143) drew with Baroda 616 (Priyanshu Moliya 321, Mahesh Pithiya 102).
Madhya Pradesh 407-8d (Saksham Purohit 132, Rajat Patidar 109) beat Bihar 99 (Mangal Mahrour 42, Saransh Jain 7-40) & 134 (Saransh Jain 6-49).
Uttar Pradesh 333 (Karan Sharma 167, Sagar Udeshi 4-62) drew with Puducherry 172 & 211-8 (Kartik Yadav 6-42).
Vidarbha 442-8 (Dhruv Shorey 168) beat Goa 220 (Yash Kasvankar 63*, Darshan Misal 51, Nachiket Bhute 5-48) & 195 (Manthan Khutkar 70, Harsh Dubey 4-38).
Group B
Three matches in Group B produced outright results, as Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Saurashtra won against Andhra, Tripura and Assam respectively. Shreyas Gopal was Karnataka’s star, taking five wickets in the second innings, while Parth Bhut claimed an eight-wicket haul against Assam. Hyderabad and Punjab, meanwhile, played out a tame draw.
Chhattisgarh 231 & 182-5 beat Andhra 231 (SV Rahul 89, Jayant Yadav 4-75) & 184-3d (Ricky Bhui 72*).
Hyderabad 380 (Abhirath Reddy 97, Rahul Radesh 86) drew with Punjab 431 (Salil Arora 151, Chama Milind 4-79) & 240-6d.
Karnataka 490-9d (Aneeshwar Gautam 100) beat Tripura 194 (Bikramkumar Das 51, Shikhar Shetty 5-54) & 180 (Shreyas Gopal 5-36).
Saurashtra 387 (Hetvik Kotak 80) beat Assam 281 (Denish Das 90, Sibsankar Roy 100, Jaydev Unadkat 3-50) & 94 (Parth Bhut 8-17).
Group C
Group C produced just one outright result, as Bengal rode a 10-wicket match haul to beat Kerala. Pradipta Pramanik was the architect, taking four wickets in the first innings and six in the second. The Jharkhand vs Delhi and Services vs Odisha matches were affected by rain, while Maharashtra earned points on the basis of a first-innings lead against Gujarat.
Jharkhand 131-4 (Utkarsh Singh 53*) drew with Delhi 515-5d (Ayush Badoni 210*, Sumit Mathur 150*).
Services 40-0 drew with Odisha 194 (Swastik Samal 39, Pulkit Narang 6-47).
Bengal 350 (Shahbaz Ahmed 121, Aditya Sarvate 4-95) & 198 beat Kerala 141 (Vishnu Vinod 41, Pradipta Pramanik 4-44) & 120 (Pradipta Pramanik 6-51).
Maharashtra 330 & 141-4 drew with Gujarat 223 & 446-5d (Aarya Desai 151, Jaymeet Patel 119*).
Group D
Tanush Kotian produced a staggering eight-wicket haul as Mumbai beat Haryana by 10 wickets. Tamil Nadu thumped Railways by five wickets. Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh played out a high-scoring draw, while Rajasthan earned crucial points on the basis of a first-innings lead against Uttarakhand.
Himachal Pradesh 559-6 (Akash Vashisht 126*, Innesh Mahajan 121) drew with Chandigarh 685-5d (Nehal Pajni 222, Arjun Azad 147).
Mumbai 430 & 97-0 (Angkrish Raghuvanshi 67*) beat Haryana 270 & 256 (Tanush Kotian 8-81).
Tamil Nadu 165 & 130-5 beat Railways 184 & 108 (Sai Kishore 4-39).
Rajasthan 272 (Kartik Sharma 73, Devendra Bora 6-72) & 290-5d (Karan Lamba 100*) drew with Uttarakhand 194 (Kookna Ajay Singh 5-66) & 38-0.
Plate Group
Manipur defeated Arunachal Pradesh despite tons from Techi Doria and Salil Malhotra for the latter side in the second innings. Manipur stumbled during a tricky run chase but got over the line with four wickets in hand. Nagaland earned points on a first-innings lead of three runs against Sikkim, while Mizoram and Meghalaya played out a high-scoring draw.
Nagaland 187 (Joshua Ozukum 59) & 117-5 drew with Sikkim 184 (Leeyong Lepcha 43, Imliwati Lemtur 5-40) & 208 (Chetan Bist 97).
Manipur 364 (Jotin Pheiroijam 166, Likha Sonia 4-56) & 180-6 beat Arunachal Pradesh 111 (Ajay Singh 4-27) & 431 (Techi Doria 160, Salil Malhotra 135).
Mizoram 430 (Chinmay Sutar 125) drew with Meghalaya 562 (Ajay Duhan 239, Kishan Lyngdoh 198) & 60-2.