Ranji Trophy semifinals: Pacers dismantle Bengal as J&K on cusp of historic final appearance
Karnataka continued to pile further misery on Uttarakhand, even as things progressed at a pedestrian pace on Day 3 in Lucknow. Karnataka were in no mood to declare having started the day on 689/6, with Smaran Ravichandran (135) and Vidyadhar Patil (54) extending their partnership to 109. Mayank Mishra finally ended Smaran's vigilance as the southpaw was stumped, following which the rest of the wickets fell rather quickly even as Patil notched up his half-century.
Once Karnataka were bowled out for 736, Uttarakhand had a tricky passage of play to negotiate before Lunch. Patil had Prashant Chopra trapped in front for just five runs in the fifth over, before Uttarakhand got through to the end of the session on 28/1. Karnataka kept chipping away at the wickets, however, reducing Uttarakhand to 86/4 by Tea as Patil bagged a second wicket before Vijaykumar Vyshak and Shreyas Gopal also got into the act.
Post Tea, Lakshya Raichandani forged a solid vigil, stonewalling the bowlers at his end in a 43-run stand with Jagadeesha Suchith (21) before the latter was castled by Prasidh Krishna. Wicket-keeper Saurabh Rawat then hung around with Raichandani, who notched up a fifty, as Uttarakhand lost no further wickets, ending the day at 149/5, still a whopping 587 runs away from achieving first-innings parity.
Brief Scores: Karnataka 736 (Smaran Ravichandran 135, Vidyadhar Patil 54, Aditya Rawat 4-154) lead Uttarakhand 149/5 (Lakshya Raichandani 52*, Vidyadhar Patil 2-26) by 587 runs.
Jammu and Kashmir find themselves just 83 runs away from a historic maiden Ranji Trophy final appearance, finishing Day 3 at 43/2 in the fourth innings. Their strong foothold over the game was set up by pacers Auqib Nabi Dar and Sunil Kumar, who combined to wreak havoc on Bengal, bowling them out for 99 in the second innings.
The day began with J&K resuming on their overnight first innings score of 198/5, although Abid Mushtaq soon departed for 27 with Mohammed Shami prizing him out. Shami then got Kanhaiya Wadhawan nicking behind for 29 for his fifth wicket before Vanshaj Sharma also perished cheaply. At 231/8, J&K were still 97 runs adrift of Bengal's first innings score, post which Nabi (42) and Yudhvir Singh (33) combined for a crucial ninth wicket stand of 64. Shami returned to remove the last two wickets, finishing with career-best figures of 8/90 as J&K were bowled out for 302 by Lunch.
Nabi then got into the act in the second session, trapping both Sudip Chatterjee and Abhimanyu Easwaran LBW on either side of Sunil getting rid of first innings centurion Sudip Kumar Gharami. Yudhvir then made it four LBWs to send veteran Anustup Majumdar back as Bengal were reeling at 19/4. Despite a counter-attack from Shahbaz Ahmed (24), Bengal kept losing wickets as the J&K seamers ran through them to skittle them out cheaply for 99 shortly after Tea, putting the visitors firmly on top.
Akash Deep then cleaned up Shubham Khajuria before nicking off Yawer Hassan too. A 31-run unbeaten stand between Shubham Pundir (23*) and Vanshaj (9*) ensured no further damage as J&K ended the day as favorites to script something special on Day 4.
Brief Scores: Bengal 328 & 99 (Shahbaz Ahmed 24, Sunil Kumar 4-27, Auqib Nabi Dar 4-36) lead Jammu and Kashmir 302 & 43/2 (Shubham Pundir 23*, Akash Deep 2-12) by 86 runs.
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