Ranji Trophy: Kerala defeat Delhi; Hardik Pandya hits 73 in vain

Kerala defeated Delhi by an innings and 27 runs in their Ranji Trophy Group B match on Sunday in Thiruvananthapuram.

Delhi quite clearly missed the services of their former skipper Gautam Gambhir as they demanded a solid knock from captain Dhruv Shorey to stay alive in the game after they were reduced to 41/5 at stumps on Saturday.

On the third day, Shorey and Anuj Rawat offered some resistance for a brief moment but Kerala once again pegged them back with Jalaj Saxena removing Shorey for 30.

It was only a matter of time before Kerala won the match and took home all the points available as they ended a fightback from Delhi in form of Rawat (31), Subodh Bhati (30) and Shivam Sharma (33).

Also read: Ranji Trophy: Hardik Pandya makes successful return with five-wicket haul

In Mumbai, a half-century on comeback for fit Hardik Pandya didn’t stop Mumbai from taking a 29-run lead in the Group A match on Sunday.

The all-rounder had taken a five-wicket haul earlier and followed it up with 73 off 137 balls to help Baroda end their first innings at 436.

Summarised scores: Kerala 320 all out in 95.3 overs beat Delhi 139 in 66.2 overs and 154 all out in 41 overs (Sandeep Warrier 3 for 39, Jalaj Saxena 3 for 49) by an innings and 27 runs.

At Mumbai: Mumbai 465 and 20 for 2 (Vikrant Auti not out 2, Siddhesh Lad not out 2; H Pandya 2 for 4) versus Baroda 436 (Aditya Waghmode 114, Vishnu Solanki 133, Shivalik Sharma 51, Hardik Pandya 73; R Dias 4 for 99, S Ranjane 3 for 62).

At Nashik: Saurashtra 398 versus Maharashtra 247 all out (Kedar Jadhav 99, Rahul Tripathi 30, Chetan Sakariya 6-63, Jaydev Unadkat 2-50) and 157/3 (Rohit Motwani 65 not out, Rahul Tripathi 38, Hardik Rathod 1-22).

At Surat: Gujarat 216 and 187/3 (R H Bhatt 82 not out, B H Merai 74, Ronit More 1-29) versus Karnataka 389 all out (Shreyas Gopal 93, Devdutt Paddikal 74, R Vinay Kumar 51, Piyush Chawla 4-99, Axar Patel 3-84).

At New Delhi (Karnail Singh Stadium): Vidarbha 331 and 147 (A Sarvate 39, Harsh Tyagi 7-41) and versus Railways 236 (P S Singh 95, Nitin Bhille 37, Akshay Wakhare 5-71, Aditya Sarvate 3-66) and 19/1.

Tamil Nadu 215 all out and 166 for 3 in 46 overs (Abhinav Mukund 74, N Jagadeesan 50) vs Punjab 479 all out in 118.5 overs (Shubman Gill 268, Mandeep Singh 50, R Sai Kishore 6/107).