Spinner Shivam keeps UP's hopes alive of winning Ranji tie
LUCKNOW, Feb. 1 -- Now for sure, it's not going to be a bonus-point match for defending champions and hosts Vidarbha in their crucial as well last Elite Group A Ranji Trophy match against former champions Uttar Pradesh at Nagpur as the visitors dashed their dream of winning the match outrightly by getting four batters out for 91 in their second innings.
Desperate to win the match with a bonus point to keep their hopes alive for a berth in the knockout, Vidarbha still need 111 runs to win the game with six wickets in hand, and given the conditions, Uttar Pradesh's spinner Shivam Sharma's spell has set up a tense final day. On Sunday, if Vidarbha win against Uttar Pradesh with six points, they will have a chance to qualify, but if they lose Jharkhand will qualify due to superior bonus points (3 to 1) even after losing to Odisha.
After leveling the first innings score at 237 with Uttar Pradesh on Friday, Vidarbha managed to get the visitors out for 200 on the penultimate day of the match on Saturday, at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Jamtha, but lost four wickets later in the day even after having a solid start.
Opener Aman Mokhade was batting at the crease with an unbeaten half-century as the day's proceedings came to an end with the fall of Ravikumar Samarth's wicket in 30.5 overs. Mokhade's 89-ball unbeaten 50 was laced with six hits to the fence.
He along with fellow opener Satyan Bhoyar (13) stitched together 41 runs for the first wicket, but thereafter Vidarbha kept losing wickets on regular intervals till the end of the day's play. On the very last ball of the 17th over Bhoyar was bowled by left-arm orthodox spinner Shivam Sharma, who also accounted for keeper-batter Rohit Binkar (0) caught by Madhav Kaushik.
This wasn't all as Kartik Tyagi then trapped Yash Kadam (10) leg before wicket, before Shivam Sharma had his third wicket in the form of Samarth, who was also trapped LWB after scoring just 11.
Earlier, Uttar Pradesh while resuming at the overnight score of 75/2, could add 125 runs to the total. Skipper Aryan Juyal scored 73-ball 36 with the help of three hits to the fence, whereas keeper-batter Aditya Sharma struck 44 in 100 balls with the help of four boundaries and a six.
Uttar Pradesh too kept losing wickets on Saturday even though Dhruv Jurel (40, 95b, 5x4) and Shivam Sharma (32*, 97b, 3x4, 1x6) tried to play big innings. Siddharth Yadav made 16, but the last four batters failed to touch the double-figure mark. For Vidarbha, Parth Rekhade took 3/19, whereas Yash Thakur and Nachiket Bhute shared four wickets between them.
A day after bagging his career best 6/31, all-rounder Akshu Bajwa struck a fine unbeaten half-century to help spirited Uttar Pradesh take a crucial 148-run first innings lead against hosts Uttarakhand on Day Two of their Elite Group D encounter of the Under-23 Col CK Nayudu Trophy at the Kaushiki Cricket Ground in Ramnagar on Saturday. Bajwa struck 45-ball unbeaten 51 with the help of one boundary and seven sixes as Uttar Pradesh scored 318 in 85.5 overs in their first innings while chasing Uttarakhand's first innings total of 170. Uttarakhand were 100/4 in 31 overs in their second innings at the end of day's play on Saturday and still trail by 48 runs.
Uttar Pradesh, while resuming at the overnight score of 105/2 on Saturday, saw their batters like Kavya Teotia (32), Shubham Mishra (34), Mohd Amaan (36) and Ali Zafir Mohsin (47) scoring with responsibilities.
In Uttarakhand's second innings, it was pacer Vijay Kumar, who did most of the damage, bagging 3/36 before Bajwa taking 1/7. Both Aditya Naithani and Ishagra Jagoori scored 43 runs each, whereas skipper Harsh Rana (4) was unbeaten at the draw of stumps....
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