Ranji Trophy 2017: Delhi Reaches Final, Vidarbha Takes Lead on Day Three

Vidarbha took a 79 runs lead on day three of the semi-final match against Karnataka with six-wicket in hand. Karnataka began day three on 294/8 but were shortly bowled out for 301 early in the day. Karun Nair was the star for the Karnataka side as he scored 153. He was removed by Indian speedster Umesh Yadav who ended up picking four wickets in the innings. CM Gautam was the second highest scorer for Karnataka scoring 73 runs.

Karnataka’s captain Vinay Kumar showed great resistance against the Vidarbha bowlers as he scored 21 runs off 89 deliveries. He was involved in a 71 runs partnership with Nair. For Vidarbha, Rajneesh Gurbani was the pick of the bowlers as he picked up a five-wicket haul. Gurbani was equally supported by Umesh Yadav who picked up the last two wickets of the day.

In their second innings, Vidarbha had a poor start losing Faiz Fazal on the second delivery with the team score at 0. Wasim Jaffer and R Sanjay then tried to steady the ship and added 36 runs before Sanjay fell to Stuart Binny. Ganesh Satish was the unbeaten on 71 for Vidarbha while jaffer was dismissed for 33 runs. AV Wankhade fell disappointingly short of a fifty by just one run. Vidarbha was 195/4 at stumps.

In the other semi-final, Delhi defeated Bengal by an innings and 26 runs. Day three was completely dominated by the bowlers as 17 wickets fell in the day. Delhi started the day at 271/3. Himmat Singh scored 60 runs while Manan Sharma scored 34 runs. Rishabh Pant disappointed as he fell early on just 1. Mohammed Shami was the pick of the bowlers for Bengal as he picked up six wickets for his team. Ashok Dinda and B Amit picked up two wickets each. Delhi was eventually bowled out for 398.

Bengal batsmen failed miserably on day three as they were bundled out for just 86 runs. SD Chatterjee was the highest scorer for the Bengal team with 21 runs. Bengal’s captain Manoj Tiwary scored 14 while Shreevats Goswami scored 17.

For Delhi, Navdeep Saini and Kulwant Khejroliya picked four wickets for the winning team. Vikas Tokas picked up one wicket.