Ranji Trophy: Victories for Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka, Gujarat

New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS)  The final day of the fourth round of the Ranji Trophy saw Delhi, Karnataka, Mumbai, Gujarat coming out victorious against their respective opponents on Saturday.

While Delhi achieved their four-wicket victory against Uttar Pradesh in their Group A fixture in the final hour of play at the Palam A Ground here, Karnataka romped to a bonus-point win after thrashing Maharashtra by an innings and 136 runs in Pune.

Delhi's win meant they are second in the group behind Karnataka while UP are languishing at the penultimate spot. The hosts chased down the 252-run target with ease, thanks to Nitish Rana's 67 and opener Unmukt Chand's 49 runs as the duo added valuable 71 runs. Milind Kumar too played a handy unbeaten 48 to set up Delhi's win. 

Karnataka, on the other hand rode on Abhimanyu Mithu's fifer to demolish Maharashtra and notch their third win on the trot.

In another Group A contest, Hyderabad finally had some reason to cheer after two frustrating washouts and a loss to Karnataka, thumping the Railways by 10 wickets to pocket seven points at the Karnail Singh Stadium in New Delhi.

Record champions Mumbai brought up their first win of the season, as they tamed minnows Odisha by 120 runs in a Group C match at the KIIT Stadium in Bhubaneswar while Gujarat completed their third straight win from as many Group B games after thumping Haryana by 238 runs in Valsad.

Set a target of 413, Odisha were bowled out for 292 in their second innings, with Mumbai pacers Dhawal Kulkarni and Akash Parkar being the wreckers in chief with three wickets each.

In another Group C tie, Andhra notched up their maiden win of the season after chasing down a target of 65 in 13.1 overs against Madhya Pradesh on the final morning in Vizianagaram. Andhra, however, missed out on a bonus point after losing openers Srikar Bharat (6) and DB Prasanth (23) during the chase.

In Group B, Gujarat rode on 17-year-old left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai and leg-spinner Piyush Chawla's heroics to thrash Haryana and cement their place at the top of the table.

Gujarat needed less than 10 overs on the final morning after Haryana managed to add only 28 runs to their overnight score of 94/7 chasing 361.

In other Group B matches, Saurashtra thrashed Jharkhand by six wickets to bring up their third win on the trot. Chasing a paltry 59, Saurashtra lost the opportunity to score seven points as they lost a few early wickets, but eventually completed it without much trouble to sit behind Gujarat and Kerala.

Kerala, meanwhile, needed only 8.5 overs on the final morning to brush aside Jammu & Kashmir by 158 runs and collect their third win from four games in Thiruvananthapuram.

In Group D, Vidharbha cantered to a 192-run win, courtesy off-spinner Akshay Wakhare's second five-wicket haul of the match to skittle the Services out for 99 chasing 292, in Nagpur.

Group D toppers Punjab thrashed Chhattisgarh by an innings and 118 runs, thanks to seamers Sandeep Sharma and Barinder Sran, who bagged seven wickets between them in the second innings at Raipur.

In the other fixure, Bengal settled for a draw with Himachal Pradesh in Kolkata. Chasing 141, Bengal scored 65/4 in 15 overs, to draw the tie but not before bagging three points on the basis of their first innings lead.