A round-up of the third day’s play of the fifth-round matches of the Ranji Trophy Super League 2009-10

Cricinfo staff03-Dec-2009Group B
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The follow-on was inevitable on the second day, but Baroda were outdone for a second time as Karnataka marched to six points at the Moti Bagh Stadium. The Karnataka bowlers, led by Vinay Kumar, were once again instrumental in maintaining their supremacy at the top of the table. Baroda’s last pair held out for the first three overs of the morning, as Karanataka imposed the follow-on with a lead of 335. The hosts lost two early wickets in their second essay, before a third-wicket stand of 54 between opener Connor Williams and Jacob Martin propped them up. Robin Uthappa triggered another collapse, leaving Baroda staring down the barrel at 155 for 7. Another brave half-century from Irfan Pathan was the small glimmer of hope, but the hosts succumbed in the 61st over. Vinay Kumar finished with three wickets, while Uthappa, Abhimanyu Mithun and Sreesanth Aravind chipped in with two apiece, ensuring Karnataka became the first team to book a spot in the quarter-finals.
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Pradeep Sangwan’s all-round show kept Delhi’s hopes of an outright win against Saurashtra alive at the Roshanara Club Ground. He starred in a defiant 141-run stand with wicketkeeper Puneet Bisht, who brought up his hundred, and then took two crucial wickets as Delhi looked for a late charge to the quarter-finals. Delhi resumed on 262 for 7, with their chances of taking a lead on a knife-edge. But Sangwan stroked a watchful half-century and gave good support to Bisht, who hit 18 fours during his 169-ball innings. Sangwan and Bisht collaborated again to send back opener Sagar Jogiyani in the third over as Saurashtra’s reply got off on the wrong foot. Sangwan went on to remove the dangerous Cheteshwar Pujara to deal a body blow. Pawan Suyal and Parvinder Awana each picked up two wickets as well, as the rest of the Saurashtra batsmen failed to convert their starts, and were left sweating with a narrow lead.
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The match between Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh at the Pune Club Ground is heading for a great climax, with the visitors up for a tricky chase on the fourth chase. The target was set up by Sangram Dilp Atitkar, who continued the good work for Maharashtra from the previous day, but finishing agonisingly short of a well-deserved century. From their overnight 102 for 2, Maharashtra declared on a challenging 338 for 9, lifted by a string of small yet crucial contributions from the middle order. Legspinner Piyush Chawla yet gain proved pivotal and finished with a five-for. Needing 423 for the win, the Uttar Pradesh openers saw off the five overs remaining in the day. They will look to give the visitors a good start on the final day, if they are to salvage anything form the match, having surrendered first-innings points.Group A
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With 94 to get, Punjab’s batsmen wasted no time, wrapping up the victory inside 30 overs on the third day. Left-arm spinner Kuldeep Diwan accounted for two batsmen, but Vishwas Bhalla and Taruwar Kohli held fort to rocket them to second place in the points table, ahead of Mumbai, at least for the time being.
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Jay Desai’s watchful half-century might prove pivotal as Gujarat, aiming to keep their quarter-final hopes alive, put on a better second-innings display against Railways in Valsad. Having secured a first-innings lead the previous day, Railways kept Gujarat at bay courtesy Marripuri Suresh’ composed fifty. The legspin duo of Timil Patel and Salil Yadav did well to ensure that only 64 were added to Railways’ overnight score of 327 for 5. The horrors of 91 all out first up were refreshed when Gujarat lost Timil Patel in the third over. But Desai anchored the innings well, combing with Niraj Patel for a second wicket stand of 115. Gujarat captain Parthiv Patel’s approach on the final day will be interesting as Mumbai, who are just above them, are looking dominant in Hyderabad.
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Orissa frittered away a good start to concede a narrow 34-run first-innings lead against Tamil Nadu in Sambalpur. Resuming on a comfortable 173 for 1, still 188 adrift of Tamil Nadu’s first-innings score, Shiv Sunder Das completed his century but his overnight partner Niranjan Behera missed out on three figures by five runs. R Ashwin, who has earned a national call-up for the two Twenty20 internationals against Sri Lanka, broke the 199-run partnership between Das and Behera when he had the latter caught by Chandrasekar Ganapathy. Ganapathy and Aushik Srinivas then bowled incisively, picking up three wickets apiece, to bundle out Orissa in the 71st over of the day. Tamil Nadu proceeded to consolidate their lead as openers Srikkanth Anirudha and Arun Karthik safely negotiated the remaining 17 overs.Click here for Siddarth Ravindran’s report from the Hyderabad-Mumbai match.