File photo – Anupam Sanklecha took career-best figures of 8 for 73 to leave Assam stumbling towards deafeat © PTI
Anupam Sanklecha took his second consecutive ten-wicket haul in a match – also bettering his career-best in consecutive games – to bring Maharashtra within four wickets of an innings-victory against Assam in Chennai.
Assam, who had put up 132 for 3 at stumps on the second day in response to Maharashtra’s 542, lost Kunal Saikia (39) in the second over of the day. Sanklecha claimed his wicket, before an 85-run stand between Rishav Das (86) and Arun Karthik (47) steadied them. However, Arun Karthik fell to the part-time offspin of Chirag Khurana (2-34) with the score on 219, and Sanklecha removed Rishav in the very next over, to initiate a collapse of 6 for 37 that saw Assam fold up for 256. Sanklecha ended with figures of 8 for 73.
Assam were asked to follow-on and found themselves 51 for 4 in the 18th over, having lost opener Rahul Hazarika in the third over to Sanklecha. Left-arm medium-pacer Mohsin Sayyed (2-21) was primarily responsible for this, removing Rishav Das (14) and Amit Verma off consecutive overs. Arun Karthik (33*) was involved in another half-century stand for the fifth wicket, but the wicket of his partner late in the day, Saikia (33), brought another one and Assam finished the day on 115 for 6, still 171 runs behind. Those last two wickets were taken by Sanklecha, who finished the day with 3 for 37.
Delhi restricted Rajasthan to 221 and reached 51 for 3 in their chase of 153 at stumps in Wayanad.
Rajasthan began the day on 19 for 1, and lost three wickets before they overtook the deficit of 69. Pradeep Sangwan (3-31) too the two wickets. They were then reduced to 99 for 5, before Rajesh Bishnoi‘s half-century and his partnerships of 45 and 55 with Salman Khan and Chetan Bist (25) took them close to 200. He was the ninth batsman dismissed, on 89, before Rajasthan’s innings folded for 221. Left-arm spinner Manan Sharma finished with 3 for 59.
Delhi’s strong top-order – Gautam Gambhir, Unmukt Chand, Rishabh Pant – failed, with the exception of Shikhar Dhawan, who scored an unbeaten 35 off 45, as they went into stumps needing 102 to win with seven wickets in hand.
Odisha opened up the prospect of an outright win against table-toppers Karnataka, as they inflicted yet another top-order collapse on them at Palam in Delhi.
The day began with Odisha’s last-wicket overnight pair adding 24 and bringing up their fifty partnership, before Basant Mohanty (40) was dismissed with the score on 342, and the lead on 163.
Karnataka opener Mayank Agarwal fell for his second single-digit score of the match, before a counter-attacking second-wicket stand of 58 in 10.4 overs between R Samarth (49) and Robin Uthappa (32 off 33). It was the pair’s second half-century stand of the game, but when it was cut short with Uthappa’s, it triggered yet another collapse. Karnataka went from 74 for 1 to 108 for 4. Left-arm spinner Dhiraj Singh (3-54) took all three of those wickets.
It was left to CM Gautam – who scored 54 in the first innings – to rescue Karnataka once again when Stuart Binny (32) was removed with the score on 133. He joined Vinay Kumar (41) to put on 98 for the sixth wicket. Vinay fell late in the day but Gautam safely batted out the final overs with Shreyas Gopal (11*) to remain unbeaten on 68. Karnataka were 244 for 6, 81 ahead of Odisha.
Vandit Jivrajani took his third four-wicket haul in just his third game even as Vidharba took the first-innings lead against Saurashtra at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi.
Vidharba began the day on 242 for 3 and had lost just one wicket, that of Shalabh Shrivastava (37), when they went past Saurasthra’s first-innings total of 301. However, a crucial spell from Jivrajani saw them fall from 301 for 4 to 318 for 7. The medium-pacer took all three wickets in that collapse and opened up Vidharba’s tail which managed only four runs between the four batsmen – three ducks – before they were bowled out for 347.
Saurasthra opener Snell Patel‘s unbeaten 60, his first fifty, took them to 92 for 2 at stumps, 46 ahead with eight wickets in hand. Nightwatchman Jivrajani was unbeaten at the other end.
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo